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SOME  CHAPTERS  in  the 
HISTORY  OF  MISSOURI 


E.  M.  VIOLETTE 


» 


Jiso-^ 


SOME  CHAPTERS 


IN  THE 


HISTORY   OF   MISSOURI 


BY 


E.  M.  VIOLETTE 

Professor  of  European  History 
State  Normal  School, 

KiRKSVILLE,  Mo. 


1914 
Journal  Printing  Co., 

KiRKSVILLE,  Mo. 


Copyright,  1914, 

BY  ^ 

E.  M.  Vtolette. 


PREFACE. 

At  [)resent  greater  interest  is  being  taken  in  state  history  than  ever 
before.  As  yet  however  this  subject  is  being  pursued  in  our  schools  as 
a  separate  course  and  not  in  connection  with  American  history,  and 
all  the  texts  on  state  history,  as  far  as  the  author  knows,  have  been 
written  on  that  basis. 

But  with  the  increased  interest  in  the  subject,  the  question  has 
arisen  as  to  how  it  may  be  best  pursued  in  our  schools,  and  here  and 
there  doubts  are  being  expressed  as  to  whether  the  old  method  should 
be  continued. 

The  author  holds  with  others  that  the  history  of  at  least  some  of 
the  states  of  our  Union  should  be  studied  in  connection  with  ouAJiational 
history  in  order  that  the  proper  setting  may  be  obtained.  In  some 
instances  it  may  be  that  the  old  method  of  pursuing  state  history  as  a 
separate  and  distinct  course  and  without  any  close  connection  with 
our  national  history,  should  still  be  continued,  but  undoubtedly  the 
history  of  Missouri  should  be  studied  in  connection  with  that  of  our 
nation.  Her  relation  to  many  of  the  vital  problems  of  our  national 
life  and  her  geographical  position,  to  mention  nothing  further,  show 
how  closely  she  is  linked  with  that  of  om-  country  and  how  necessary 
it  is  to  study  her  past  in  the  Ught  of  that  of  oxu-  nation.  That  this 
view  has  already  found  favor  is  seen  in  the  most  recent  textbook  on 
Missouri  history  in  which  the  scholarly  author .  has  incorporated  a 
good  deal  of  American  history  in  order  that  something  of  a  proper  setting 
might  be  obtained.  But  his  excellent  text  is  intended  primarily  for  use  in 
classes  that  pursue  Missouri  history  as  a  separate  subject  in  the  ele- 
mentary grades. 

As  yet  Mi.ssouri  history,  even  as  a  sep&rate  subject  has  found  a 
place  only  in  the  courses  of  study  in  the  elementary  grades.  As  far 
as  the  author  knows  it  is  not  pursued  in  the  high  schools  at  all,  either 
as  a  separate  subject  or  in  connection  with  American  history. 

Now  the  author  of  this  booklet  holds  that  Missouri  history,  whether 
studied  in  the  elementary  or  in  the  high  school  grades,  should  be  pur- 
sued in  connection  with  American  history,  and  he  holds  especially  to 
the  view  that  it  should  be  studied  in  the  high  school  and  in  the  man- 
ner juet  suggested.  He  has,  therefore^lx'gun  the  task  of  writing  a  text 
which  will  conform  to  that  idea  and  wliich  will  be  suitable  for  high 
school  work.  Parts  of  it  may  be  found  adaptable  to  pupils  of  the  eighth 
grade. 

The  plan  contemplates  the  elimination  of  much  that  is  incidental 
that  has  found  a  place  in  the  text  books  on  Missouri  history  that  have 


754841 


4  Chapters  in  Missouri  History 

boen  written,  but  the  aim  has  been  to  deal  with  those  things  that  are 
essential  to  a  proper  appreciation  of  the  history  of  the  state  and  that 
are  more  or  less  connected  with  the  history  of  the  nation  and  can  be 
properly  understood  only  as  they  are  studied  in  that  relation. 

The  chapters  have  been  written  so  that  they  may  be  used  along 
with  the  text  in  American  history,  and  at  the  beginning  of  each  of  them 
there  has  been  placed  a  note  to  the  teacher  in  which  suggestions  are 
made  as  to  when  the  chapters  might  be  used.  While  an  effort  has 
been  made  to  connect  these  chapters  so  that  in  a  way  they  form  some- 
thing of  a  continuous  story,  it  is  possible  for  the  teacher  to  omit  some 
of  them  if  he  finds  it  necessary  and  yet  do  no  serious  violence  to  the 
sequence  of  the  story  that  is  being  told.  Certain  chapters  should  not 
be  omitted  under  circumstances,  as  for  example  the  one  on  Early  Settle- 
ments or  the  one  on  the  Admission  of  Missouri  into  the  Union,  but 
others,  such  as  the  Attack  on  St.  Louis  in  1780  and  the  Presidential 
Election  of  1820,  might  well  be  omitted  if  time  is  not  sufficient. 

The  present  booklet  contains  enough  chapters  to  enable  a  test 
to  be  made  of  the  principle  on  which  the  scheme  rests.  It  is  published 
in  a  very  limited  edition  and  for  experiemental  purposes  only  in  classes 
of  high  school  rank.  If,  after  the  test  which  is  to  be  made  in  the  next 
six  months,  it  appears  as  though  the  plan  is  practicable,  the  complete 
work  with  maps  and  illustrations  will  be  pubhshed. 

Frank  criticisms  from  any  one  interested  in  the  subject  will  be 
greatly  appreciated. 

E.  M.   ViOLETTE. 

State  Normal,  School, 

Kirksville,  Missouri, 

February  12,  1914. 


CONTENTS. 

Chapter  Page 

I'.  Early  Settlemb:nts  in  Missouri,    1735-69 7 

Treaty  of  Paris,  1763;  Early  Illinois  Settlements;  First 
Efforts  to  establish  Settlements  in  Missouri;  Early 
Lead  Mining  in  Missouri;  P'ounding  of  Ste.  Genevieve, 
1735;  Founding  of  St.  Louis,  1764;  Immigration  from 
Illinois  Settlements  to  Missouri. 

II.  The  English  Attack  on  St.  Louis  in  1780 17 

Relations  between  the  Spanish  Authorities  at  New  Orleans 
and  Gov.  Henry  of  Virginia;  Treaty  between  Spain  and 
France;  Alliance  between  the  English  and  the  Indians; 
Attack  upon  St.  Louis;  Attempt  to  capture  Cahokia;  Cap- 
ture of  St.  Joseph  on  Lake  Michigan  by  the  Spanish. 

III.  Conditions  in  Missouri  in  1803 22 

Transfer  of  Louisiana  to  the  United  States;  Causes  of 
Increase  in  Population  of  Louisiana;  Settlements  in  St. 
Charles,  St.  Louis,  Ste.  Genevieve,  Cape  Girardeau,  and 
New  Madrid  Distri(!ts;  Governmental  Organization  under 
the  Spanish  Regime;  Pioneer  Life  among  the  French  and 
the  American  Settlers;  Daniel  Boone;  Governmental  Or- 
ganization of  the  District  of  Louisiana  in  1804. 

IV.  Burr  Conspiracy 47 

Dissatisfaction  with  the  Governmental  Organization  of  the 
District  of  Louisiana;  Creation  of  the  Territory  of  Louis- 
iana; Intrigues  of  General  Wilkinson,  Governor  of  Louisi- 
ana, with  Burr;    Collapse  of  the  Conspiracy. 

V.  Indian  Troubles  During  the  War  of  1812. 51 

Relations  between  English  and  Indians;  Indian  Tribes  in 
Missouri  in  1812;  Boon's  Lick  Country;  Indian  Attacks 
upon  Mississippi  River  Settlements;  Indian  P'orts;  Peace 
with  Indians  in  1815,  and  Cessions  of  Indian  Lands  in  Mis- 
souri. 

VI.  Admission  of  Missouri  into  the  Union 57 

Changes  in  the  Territorial  Organization  of  Missouri,  1804- 
16;  Increa.se  in  the  Number  of  Counties;  Increase  in  Popu- 
lation; Petitions  to  Congress  for  the  Admission  of  Missouri; 
Boundaries  proposed;  Boundaries  established;  Agitation 
in  the  State  over  the  Missouri  Bill;  Exultation  over  the 
First  Missouri  Compromise;  Constitutional  Convention; 
Election  of  State  Officers;  Second  Mis.souri  Comi)romise; 
Solenm  Public  Act  of  the  Missouri  Legislaf  ur(>;  Admission 
into  the  Union. 

VU    Presidential  Election  of  1820 70 

Missouri's  Vote  in  the  Election  of  1820;  Debate  in  Con- 
gress;   Counting  of  Votes. 


B  Chapters  in  Missouri  History 

VIII.  Missouri  Politics,  1820-1S32 72 

Natioiiiil  Politics,  1S20-1832;  State  Campaigns  in  1820 
and  in  1824;  Presidential  Campaign  of  1824;  Benton  and 
Rise  of  the  Jackson  Party  in  Missouri;  Elimination  of 
Clay's  Supporters  from  Missouri  Politics;  Ascendancy 
of  the  Democratic  Party  in  Missouri. 

IX.  The  Railroads  of  Missouri 76 

Section  I. — Beginning  of  Raih-oad  Construction  in  the 
United  States;  Reasons  for  Delay  in  building  Raih-oads 
in  Missouri;  Railroad  Convention  at  St.  Louis  in  1836; 
Chartering  of  Elighteen  Railroads  in  1837;  Failure  of  Com- 
panies to  build  their  Roads;  Reasons  for  Revival  of  In- 
terest in  Railroads;  Disappointment  over  the  Failure  of 
Congress  to  assist  in  the  building  of  Railroads;  Grants  of 
State  Aid  in  1851,  1852,  and  1855;  Gasconade  Wreck  in 
1855;  Grant  of  State  Aid  in  1857;  Progress  in  Railroad 
Construction  by  1860. 

Section  II.  Defaulting  all  the  Railroads  but  the  Hannibal 
&  St.  Joseph  in  the  Payment  of  Interest  on  the  State 
Bonds ;  Causes  of  Default ;  Progress  of  Construction  dur- 
ing the  Civil  War;  Sale  of  Railroads  by  the  State;  Farcical 
Investigation  of  the  Sale;  Extension  of  Unfinished  Lines 
to  the  Boundaries  of  the  State;  Liquidation  of  the  State 
Indebtedness  on  Account  of  the  Railroads  and  of  the 
Civil  War  by  1903;  Provisions  in  the  Constitution  of  1875 
against  State  Aid  to  Public  Enterprises;  Issue  of  County 
and  Municipal  Bonds  in  behalf  of  Railroads;  Defrauding 
of  Many  of  the  Counties  by  the  Railroads;  Railroad  Mile- 
age in  Missouri  in  1911;  Establishment  of  Railroad  Con- 
nections with  the  Outside  World;  Consolidation  . of  Rail- 
roads in  Missouri  and  their  Incorporation  in  Inter  State 
Systems. 


CHAPTER  I. 

EARLY  SETTLEMENTS  IN  MISSOURI,  1735-69. 

[Note  to  the  Teacher:  This  chapter  should  be  used  just  after 
the  class  has  studied  the  Treaty  of  Paris,  1763.  James  &  Sanford, 
125;  Muzzey,  103;  Channing,  136;  Hart,  131;  McLaughhn,  150;  Mont- 
gomery, 154.  In  preparation  for  this  subject  in  Missouri  history, 
special  emphasis  should  have  been  put  upon  the  exploring  expeditions 
of  the  French  in  the  Mississippi  Valley,  particularly  those  of  Joliet, 
Marquette,  and  La  Salle.] 

By  the  Treaty  of  Paris  of  1763,  France  lost  all  of  her 
vast  possessions  in  the  Mississippi  Valley  which  were  then 
known  as  the  Colony  of  Louisiana.  To  England  she  ceded 
all  east  of  the  Mississippi  River  except  the  Isle  of  Orleans, 
^nd  to  Spain  all  west  of  that  river  and  the  Isle  of  Orleans. 
Although  the  cession  was  made  in  1763,  it  was  not  until 
1765  that  English  officers  arrived  to  assume  authority  in 
the  English  portion,  and  not  until  1769  that  Spanish  officials 
arrived  to  assume  control  in  the  Spanish  portion.  What 
is  now  Missouri  was  a  part  of  what  France  ceded  to  Spain, 
and  it  is  therefore  proposed  to  bring  under  brief  survey 
here  the  situation  in  what  is  now  Missouri  at  the  time  when 
Spanish  officials  arrived,  that  is  in  1769,  to  assume  control 
of  what  Spain  had  acquired  by  the  treaty  of  1763. 

At  the  time  when  the  Spanish  officials  arrived  in  1769, 
there  were  just  two  settlements  in  what  is  now  Missouri, 
Ste.  Genevieve  and  St.  Louis.  But  we  can  not  understand 
the  history  of  the  founding  of  these  two  settlements  without 
knowing  a  little  about  the  settlements  that  had  been  made 
in  what  is  now  Illinois,  and  so  a  few  words  must  be  said 
about  them  first. 

In  1769  there  were  at  least  five  French  settlements  in 
what  is  now  Illinois.  They  were  Kaskaskia,  La  Prairie  du 
Rocher  (Prairie  under  the  Rock),  Ft.  Chartres,  St.  Philii)pe, 
and  Cahokia.  These  settlements  were  in  a  district  that 
stretched  along  the  Mississippi  river  for  about  fifty  miles 

7 


8  Chapters  in  Missouri  History 

from  near  the  mouth  of  the   Missouri   River  south   to   the 

mouth  of  the  Kaskaskia.^ 

\r^  vj  The    oldest    of    these    settlements    were    Cakokia    and 

V        ^    Kaskaskia.     Both  had  been  established  by  French  mission- 

V         )J       aries,  the  former  in  1699  and  the  latter  in  1700.     Though 

V     nT    XjC' sCahokia  was  the  seat  of  the  government  of  France  in  the 

-^  ^   \Cv  Illinois  district  prior  to  1763,    Kaskaskia  soon  came  to  be 

the  largest  and  most  important  of  the  settlements.  It  stood 
on  the  banks  of  the  Kaskaskia  river,  a  few  miles  above  its 
junction  with  the  Mississippi,  and  as  it  afforded  many 
attractions  to  boatmen  who  were  plying  up  and  down  the 
Mississippi,  it  came  to  be  the  center  of  trade  on  the  Upper 
Mississippi  some  time  before  1763. 

By  far  the  larger  part  of  the  population  of  these  Illinois 
settlements  had  emigrated  from  French  Canada  by  way  of 
the  Great  Lakes  and  the  Illinois  river.  Most  of  these  Canad- 
ians had  been  attracted  by  the  opportunities  for  fur  trading 
offered  by  the  Illinois  country,  and  they  therefore  devoted 
themselves  largely  to  hunting  and  trading  with  the  Indians. 
Lgriculture  was  carried  on  but  little  in  these  settlements. 
In  some  of  them  scarcely  enough  grain  was  raised  to  supply 
their  own  wants,  and  yet  in  at  least  two  of  them,  Kaskaskia 
and  Cahokia,  there  were  mills  for  grinding  grain  and  sawing 
--^ip  lumber.  In  practically  ■  all  of  these  places,  some  stock 
raising  was  carried,  on. 

The  government  of  these  settlements  was  prior  to  1763 
in  the  hands  of  a  military  officer  called  the  major  commandant 
who  was  appointed  by  the  Governor  at  New  Orleans.  He 
was  absolute  in  his  authority  except  in  the  case  of  capital 
offenses  which  were  tried  by  the  Council  at  New  Orleans. 
His- 'control  over  'the  Indian  trade  was  so  extensive  that 
notody  could-be  concerned  in  it  except  on  condition  of 
giving' him  part  of  the  profits. 

-i'-i  l.'.Most  of  these 'places  can  be  located  on  a  modern  map  of  Illinois. 


I 

Early  Settlements,  1735-69  9 

Every  person  capable  of  Ix^aring  arms  was  (nirolled 
in  the  militia,  and  a  captain  of  the  militia  and  officers  were 
appointed  in  each  settlement.  In  most  of  the  settlements 
there  were  forts  which  were  used  as  a  means  of  protection 
against  attacks  from  the  Indians. 

In  each  of  the  settlements  there  was  a  Catholic  church 
or  chapel,  and  in  at  least  two  of  them  there  was  a  local 
priest  to  look  after  the  spiritual  welfare  of  the  people. 

Life  in  these  villages  was  rather  free  and  easy.  Some  of 
the  Canadian  French  married  Indian  squaws  while  others 
brought  their  wives  with  them  from  Canada.^ 

Meanwhile  a  beginning  had  been  made  towards  settling 
up  what  is  now  Missouri.  The  first  two  efforts  at  establish- 
ing permanent  white  settlements  in  Missouri,  however, 
failed.  The  first  of  these  was  an  attempt  on  the  part  of 
some  Jesuit  missionaries  to  establish  a  settlement  _at.Jit»- 
junction  of  the  River  Des  Peres-^id^'the^  Mississippi,  about 
six  miles  south  of  the  original  site  of  St.  Louis.  It  is  said 
that  the  site  was  found  to  be  unhealthful  and  that  the  settlers 
shortly  moved  across  the  Mississippi  and  lived  in  what 
came  to  be  called  St.  Joseph's  Prairie  from  the  church  they 
built  and  dedicated  to  that  saint.  Later  they  moved  to 
Kaskaskia  which  had  been  meanwhile  established. 

The  second  of  these  temporary  white  settlements  in 
what  is  now  Missouri  was  called  Ft.  Orleans.  Early  in 
the  eighteenth  century  the  French  authorities  at  Paris 
and  at  New  Orleans  sent  men  into  what  is  now  Illinois  and 
Missouri  to  search  for  silver.  The  search  carried  on  by 
these  men  proved  unsuccessful  but  they  did  a  good  deal  of 
exploring  in  these  regions.  Moreover,  the  French  traders 
and  hunters  living  in  Kaskaskia  and  the  other  Illinois  settle- 
ments early  made  their  way  up  the  Missouri  in  hunting  ex- 

1.  An  interesting  contemporaneous  account  of  these  Illinois  settle- 
ments can  be  found  in  Pittman's  European  Settlements  on  the  Miss- 
issippi. 


10  Chapters  in  Missouri  History 

peditions.  All  this  activity  on  the  part  of  the  French  aroused 
the  fears  of  the  Spanish  officials  at  Santa  Fe,  and  they  fitted 
out  an  expedition  in  1720  to  take  a  position  on  the  Missouri 
river  and  check  the  advance  of  the  French  in  that  direction. 
They  also  hoped  they  might  draw  the  trade  of  the  Missouri 
Indians  away  from  Kaskaskia  and  direct  it  towards  Santa 
Fe.  This  Spanish  expedition  failed  however  owing  to 
the  attacks  of  the  hostile  Indians.  It  had,  however,  one 
definite  result  which  is  of  interest  here,  and  that  was  the 
establishing  of  Ft.  Orleans  by  the  French  on  the  Missouri 
river  as  a  counter  move  against  the  Spaniards.  The  exact 
site  of  this  fort  is  unknown,  but  it  has  been  conjectured 
that  it  stood  on  the  Missouri  a  little  above  the  mouth  of 
Grand  river,  that  is  not  far  to  the  west  of  present  Bruns- 
wick. Some  think  it  was  on  an  island  in  the  Missouri, 
others  on  the  south  bank  of  that  river.  Owing  no  doubt 
to  the  fact  that  the  Spanish  did  not  renew  their  attempt 
at  that  time  to  get  a  foothold  on  the  Missouri,  the  French 
government  ordered  that  this  fort  should  be  abandoned  in 
1726.  The  story  that  it  was  destroyed  by  hostile  Indians 
and  the  garrison  massacred  appears  to  be  unfounded. 

The  first  white  settlement  in  what  is  now  Missouri 
that  proved  to  be  permanent  was  Ste.  Genevieve.  It  was 
established  by  people  who  had  been  living  in  Kaskaskia 
and  who  had  been  operating  lead  mines  which  lay  about 
thirty  miles  to  the  west  of  the  Mississippi.  Before  relating 
the  account  of  the  founding  of  Ste.  Qenevieve,  something 
should  be  said  about  the  mining  operations  in  this  region. 

The  early  settlers  in  the  Illinois  country  soon  learned 
from  the  Indians  of  the  lead  that  was  to  be  found  in  the 
region  across  the  Mississippi  river.  This  region  proved 
to  be  a  section  of  country  about  seventy  miles  long,  from 
the  headwaters  of  the  St.  Francois  river  to  the  Meramec. 
Rather  extravagant  accounts  of  the  richness  of  this  district 
in  minerals  made  their  way  to  France  where  they  were  readily 


Early  Settlement's,  1735-69  11 

believed  by  the  French.  Aiiioug'  others  who  Ijecame  ver}^ 
much  interested  in  these  reports  was  a  man  by  the  name  of 
Renault.  He  secured  large  mineral  grants  in  this  district 
from  the  French  government  in  1723,  and  sailed  with  two 
hundred  miners  and  laborers  and  everything  necessary  to 
carry  on  mining  operations,  including  bricks  for  a  furnace 
on  which  had  been  stamped  his  name.  On  his  way  to  New 
Orleans  he  stopped  at  San  Domingo  where  he  purchased 
five  hundred  negroes  to  be  used  in  his  mines  in  what  is  now 
Missouri.  These  proved  to  be  as  far  as  is  known  the  first 
negro  slaves  in  the  Missouri  country.  After  reaching 
New  Orleans  he  ascended  the  Mississippi  river  in  canoes 
up  'to  the  Illinois  settlements.  He  carried  on  an  extensive 
search  for  minerals  on  both  sides  of  the  Mississippi,  and 
after  nearly  twenty  years  of  rather  unsuccessful  operations 
he  returned  to  France  in  1742.  During  the  years  of  his 
operations,  such  mines  as  Mine  LaMotte,  Fourche  a  Renault, 
and  Mine  a  Breton  were  opened  up  in  what  is  now  Missouri. 

Mining  operations  were  carried  on  in  what  is  now  Mis- 
souri not  only  by  such  men  as  Renault  who  came  from 
France,  but  also  by  people  who  lived  in  the  Illinois  region. 
As  they  found  the  ore  rather  near  the  surface  they  had  no 
great  difficulty  in  mining  it.  For  some  time  these  men  not 
only  mined  but  hunted  in  what  is  now  southeastern  Missouri, 
at  the  same  time  retaining  their  homes  in  the  Illinois  settle- 
ments. They  would  cross  the  Mississippi  for  a  mining  or 
hunting  expedition,  and  then  return  home  with  their  lead 
or  game. 

Finally  some  of  these  miners  and  hunters  from  Kaskaskia 
who  had  been  mining  and  hunting  in  the  Missouri  country, 
built  some  cabins  on  the  west  bank  of  the  Mississipi)i  at  a 
point  where  they  had  been  accustometl  to  cross  as  they 
passed  back  and  forth  on  their  expeditions.  They  tluni 
took  up  their  residence  in  these  cabins  and  called  the  settle- 
ment Ste.  Genevieve.     It  went  also  by  the  name  of  Misere. 


12  Chapters  in  Missouri  History 

It  is  not  known  just  when  the  first  cabins  were  built  but  it 
is  generally  thought  to  have  been  about  1735.  The  founders 
of  this  place  were  led  to  select  the  pite  they  built  upon  not 
only  because  it  was  on  their  way  from  Kaskaskia  to  the  lead 
mines  on  the  Meramec,  but  because  of  the  salt  springs  near  by 
and  the  excellent  bottom  lands  lying  all  around.  Several 
persons  in  the  new  village  soon  began  to  make  salt  which  they 
disposed  of  to  Indians,  hunters  and  other  persons  in  the 
nearby  settlements. 

Before  Ste.  Genevieve  was  founded  the  Illinois  miners 
in  the  Meramec  region  had  been  accustomed  to  take  their 
lead  to  Fts._Xlhartres,  but  after  Ste.  Genevieve  was 
they  deposited  it  at  that  place.  The  lead 
was  usually  molded  in  the  shape  of  collars  which  were 
hung  upon  the  necks  of  the  pack  horses.  Later  it  was 
molded  into  pigs  and  carted  in  two  wheeled  French  carts 
called  charettes.  The  surplus  lead  which  was  not  needed 
for  local  uses  was  sent  down  the  Mississippi  on  flat  boats 
to  New  Orleans  and  then  loaded  on  ships  and  sent  to  France. 

By  the  time  the  Spanish  officials  came  into  what  is 
now  Missouri  in  1769  to  assume  the  government  of  Soain's 
newly  acquired  possessions,  Ste.  Genevieve  had  grown  to 
be  a  village  of  several  hundred  people.  One  writer  in  1770 
said  it  contained  seventy  families,  another  said  that  it 
contained  about  six  hundred  people  in  1769. 

The  first  settlers  of  Ste.  Genevieve  built  their  cabins 
near  the  river  in  what  was  called  the  Big  Common  Field 
But  fifty  years  later  owing  to  the  encroachments  of  the 
river,  the  town  was  moved  to  higher  ground  about  three 
miles  up  the  river.  It  was  in  1780  that  the  bank  of  the  river 
began  to  cave  in  along  the  front  of  the  village,  and  this 
forced  the  inhabitants  to  begin  to  think  of  moving.  In 
1784  some  of  them  built  houses  on  the  site  of  the  present 
town  of  Ste.  Genevieve.  The  great  overflow  of  1785,  the 
year  of  the  "Great  Waters,"  caused  many  more  to  leave  the 


Early  Settlements,  1735-69  13 

old  town  for  the  new  one,  but  it  was  not  until  1791  that  the 
original  site  was  completely  abandoned.  Since  then  this 
site  has  been  entirely  washed  away.  After  the  new 
town  was  estabhshed  a  still  greater  number  of  people  came 
from  Kaskaskia  to  take  up  their  residence.^ 

It  was  nearly  thirty  years  after  Ste.  Genevieve  was 
started  that  St.  Louis,  the  second  permanent  white  settle- 
ment in  what  is  now  Missouri,  was  established.  In  1762, 
Maxent,  a  wealthy  merchant  of  New  Orleans,  obtained 
from  the  French  governor  of  Louisiana,  a  grant  giving  him 
the  right  to  trade  with  the  Indians  on  the  Missouri  river. 
It  does  not  seem  however  that  this  grant  gave  him  a  monopoly 
of  that  trade.  Maxent  associated  with  himself  a  man  by 
the  name  of  Pierre  Laclede  Liguest,  commonly  known  as 
Laclede.  It  seems  that  the  former  furnished  the  money 
for  the  enterprise  and  the  latter  agreed  to  conduct  it.  The 
firm  was  known  as  Maxent,  Laclede  &  Co.,  or  commonly  as 
"The  Louisiana  Fur  Co." 

Preparations  having  been  completed,  Laclede  left  New 
Orleans  on  August  3,  1763  and  sailed  up  the  Mississippi 
to  Ste.  Genevieve,  arriving  there  after  a  very  tedious  journey 
about  three  months  later.  Finding  no  accommodations 
for  his  stores  at  Ste.  Genevieve,  he  crossed  the  river  to  Ft. 
Chartres.  Here  he  foimd  a  place  to  store  his  goods  and  a 
home  for  his  family.  During  the  month  of  December  he 
searched  along  the  west  bank  of  the  Mississippi  as  far  north 
as  the  Missouri  for  a  suitable  place  for  a  settlement  which 
would  become  the  center  of  the  trade  operations  which  his 
firm  was  going  to  carry  on  with  the  Indians.  He  finally 
decided  upon  a  low  bluff  a  few  miles  south  of  the  mouth  of 
the  Missouri  river. 

In  February,  1764  the  river  was  sufficiently  free  from 
ice  to  enable  Laclede  to  send  his  step  son,  Auguste  Chouteau, 

1.  In  1900  Ste.  Genevieve  had  a  population  of  1707. 


14  Chapters  in  Missouri  History 

a  boy  of  only  twelve  or  thirteen  years  of  age,  in  his  boat  to 
begin  the  work  of  erecting  buildings  on  the  site  he  had  chosen. 
Chouteau  land(Ml  there  on  Fe])ruary  14  and  put  the  men  and 
boys  who  had  becni  sent  with  him  to  work.  Laclede  came 
overland  a  little  later,  leaving  his  family  for  the  time  being 
at  Cahokia.  By  the  time  fall  came  on  he  was  able  to  move 
his  family  to  St.  Louis  and  house  them  in  a  building  which 
had  been  erected  on  the  block  now  bounded  by  First,  Second, 
Walnut  and  Market  Streets.  This  house  stood  back  further 
from  the  river  than  the  other  houses  that  had  been  built 
by  the  other  settlers. 

There  was  nothing  in  the  grant  which  had  been  made  to 
Maxent,  Laclede  and  Co.  which  authorized  them  to  lay  out 
a  settlement  nor  to  assign  to  different  parties  tracts  of  land. 
But  Laclede  did  l)oth  of  these  things  and,  later  the  govern- 
ment conferred  legal  titles  to  the  land  upon  the  people  to 
whom  grants  had  been  made  by  him. 

In  a  few  months  after  the  work  of  building  houses  in 
St.  Louis  had  been  started,  a  band  of  about  one  hundred 
and  fifty  Indian  warriors  with  their  wives  and  children 
came  and  camped  nearby.  Laclede  was  not  particularly 
pleased  to  have  them  so  near,  especially  because  of  their 
habit  of  taking  everything  they  could  find  loose.  He 
tried  to  get  rid  of  them  first  by  putting  them  to  work  dig- 
ging a  cellar,  but  he  was  compelled  to  threaten  to  call  in 
the  troops  from  Ft.  Chartres  if  they  would  not  go,  where- 
upon they  left.  A  year  or  two  later  a  band  of  Peoria 
Indians  were  allowed  to  build  a  village  at  the  lower  end  of 
the  town,  about  one  mile  below  where  the  United  States 
arsenal  now  stands.  They  do  not  seem,  however,  to  have 
been  troublesome. 

The  settlement  was  named  St.  Louis  in  honor  of  France's 
most  noted  king  of  the  middle  ages,  Louis  IX,  commonly 
known  as  St.  Louis  whose  reign  lies  in  the  thirteenth  century. 
The  town  was  also  called  in  early  days  Laclede's  Village  in 


Early  Settlements,  1735-69  15 

honor  of  Laclede;  it  was  also  called  Pain  Court  which  has 
been  interpreted  to  mean  "short  bread."  The  people  of 
Kaskaskia  are  said  to  have  been  responsible  for  the  derisive 
nicknames  which  many  of  the  early  settlements  in  what  is 
now  Missouri  bore  in  early  times,  such  as  Pain  Court  for 
St.  Louis  and  Misere  for  Ste.  Genevieve. 

As  far  as  we  know  no  other  white  settlements  had  been 
established  in  what  is  now  Missouri  when  O'Reilly  arrived 
in  New  Orleans  in  1769  to  assume  the  duties  of  Commandant 
General  of  Louisiana  for  the  Spanish  government.  But  by 
this  time  the  two  settlements  of  Ste.  Genevieve  and  St. 
Louis  had  grown  considerably,  their  population  numbering 
between  900  and  1000.  The  chief  cause  for  this  growth 
had  been  the  emigration  of  the  French  from  their  settlements 
in  the  Illinois  country.  By  the  time  Laclede  had  begun  to 
establish  St.  Louis,  the  French  settlers  in  the  Illinois  country 
had  heard  of  the  cession  of  Louisiana  made  by  France  to 
England  and  Spain.  They  were  considerably  disturbed 
over  this,  particularly  over  the  cession '  to  England.  In 
all  probability  Laclede  took  advantage  of  this  disturbed 
state  of  mind  of  the  French  settlers  in  the  Illinois  countrj^ 
and  doubtless  urged  them  to  move  to  the  new  village  he 
was  going  to  lay  out.  It  has  also  been  suggested  that  he 
advised  the  French  officials  at  Ft.  Chartres  who  had  juris- 
diction not  only  over  the  Illinois  settlements  but  also  those 
in  the  Missouri  country  as  well,  to  make  St.  Louis  the  seat 
of  the  government  of  France  for  the  Missouri  country  as 
soon  as  the  English  should  take  possession  of  the  Illinois 
country.  However  all  this  may  be,  it  is  a  fact  that  as  soon 
as  the  English  officers  arrived  to  assume  control  in  the 
Illinois  country  in  1765,  the  French  proceeded  to  abandon 
their  homes  there  in  large  numbers  and  to  move  either  to 
New  Orleans  or  to  the  Missouri  region.  St.  Philippe  was 
abandoned  by  its  entire  pojjulation,  excepting  the  captain 
of  the  militia,  and  it  is  said  that  the  people  actually  tore 


16  Chapters  in  Missouri  History 

down  their  homes  and  took  them  with  them  across  the  river 
to  the  Missouri  country.  All  the  inhabitants  of  Ft.  Chartres 
except  three  or  four  families  moved  to  Missouri,  and  many 
came  also  from  the  other  settlements  in  the  Illinois  country. 

Capt.  St.  Ange  de  Bellerive,  commonly  known  as  St. 
Ange,  who  was  French  governor  of  the  Illinois  and  Missouri 
settlements  in  1763,  on  surrendering  his  authority  over  the 
Illinois  settlements  to  the  English  governor  in  1765,  came  to 
St.  Louis  with  his  garrison  and  continued  there  the  authority 
of  the  French  government  over  the  Missouri  settlements 
until  the  Spanish  governor  arrived  in  St.  Louis  in  1770. 

The  population  of  St.  Louis  did  not  increase  as  rapidly 
in  the  next  few  years  after  1770  as  it  had  in  the  five  years 
previous  inasmuch  as  the  French  in  the  Ilhnois  country 
had  by  1770  recovered  from  their  alarm  over  the  acquisition 
of  that  territory  by  the  English  and  had  stopped  their  em- 
igration to  the  Missouri  region. 

References: — Houck,  History  of  Missouri,  3  vols.,  1908,  is  the 
great  authority  on  the  history  of  Missouri  up  to  1821.  It  should  be 
consulted  for  further  details  concerning  matters  dealt  with  in  this 
chapter,  as  follows:  First  Efforts  at  Settlement,  I,  240-45,  258-68; 
Founding  of  Ste.  Genevieve,  I,  Chapter  XI;  Founding  of  St.  Louis,  II, 
Chapter    XII. 

PiTTMANN,  European  Settlements  on  the  Mississippi  is  a  good 
contemporaneous  account  of  the  Early  Settlements  in  the  Illinois  and 
Missouri  Regions  up  to  1770.     See  the  edition  by  Hodder,  1906. 


Ma- 


A^  ^''f 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  ENGLISti  ATTACK  UPON  ST.  LOUIS  IN  1780. 

[Thi^^ould  be  iisod  just  after  a  study  has  been  made  of  the  George 
Rog^  Clark  expedition  of  1778-79.  James  &  Sanford,  173;  Muzzey, 
14^  Hart,  182;  Montgomery,  197;  Larned,  224;  McLaughUn,  206. 
Is  is  assumed  that  the  class  is  acquainted  not  only  with  the  main  out- 
lines of  the  Clark  e.xpedition  but  also  of  the  treaty  of  alliance  that 
had  been  made  in  1778  between  France  and  the  revolting  English 
colonies  in  America.] 

In  1780  the  English  made  an  attack  upon  the  Uttle 
village  of  St.  Louis  which  was  at  that  time  under  the 
government  of  Spain,  having  been  acquired  as  a  part  of 
the  territory  which  had  been  ceded  by  France  to  Spain 
by  the  Treaty  of  Paris  in  1763.  In  order  that  we  may 
understand  what  induced  the  English  to  attack  the 
village  of  St.  Louis,  we  must  remind  ourselves  of  the  George 
Rogers  Clark  expedition  in  1778-79  and  of  the  relations 
l^etween  England  and  Spain  at  about  that  time. 

The  Clark  expedition  which  had  resulted  in  the  capture 
of  the  English  forts  of  Kaskaskia  and  Cahokia  in  what  is 
now  Illinois,  and  of  Vincennes  in  what  is  now  Indiana,  had 
been  carried  out  under  the  authority  of  and  with  the  assist- 
ance of  Patrick  Henry,  Governor  of  Virginia.  But  Governor 
Henry  seems  to  have  had  in  mind  more  than  on(^  plan  of 
harassing  and  attacking  the  English.  This  is  seen  in  the 
fact  that  even  before  the  Clark  expedition  was  undertaken 
he  had  been  negotiating  with  the  Spanish  Governor  at  New 
Orleans  for  assistance  against  the  English.  As  a  result  of 
these  negotiations  arms,  ammunition  and  provisions  were 
sent  by  the  Spanish  authorities  at  New  Orleans  to  Americans 
who  were  in  some  of  the  Mississippi  River  posts  and  along 
the  frontiers  of  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia.  Moreover, 
English  vessels  on  the  lower  Mississippi  were  seized  and 
confiscated  on  the  order  of  the  Sfjanish  Governor  witii  such 

17 


18  Chapters  in  Missouri  History 

success  that  by  1778  the  British  flag  had  been  completely 
excluded  from  that  river. 

It  was  not  however  until  Clark  had  begun  his  expedition 
that  Spain  came  out  into  open  hostihty  with  England.  In 
April,  1779  she  made  a  treaty  of  alliance  with  France  against 
England,  and  in  the  following  June  she  issued  her  declara- 
tion of  war.  It  will  be  remembered  that  France  had  been 
at  war  with  England  about  a  year  at  the  time  when  Spain 
took  this  step.  Judging  from  the  treaty  made  between 
France  and  Spain,  the  chief  object  of  Spain  in  declaring  war 
against  England  seems  to  have  been  to  get  the  territory 
which  the  English  had  acquired  east  of  the  Mississippi 
River  by  the  Treaty  of  Paris  in  1763.  Shortly  after  Spain 
declared  war  upon  England,  the  Spanish  Governor  at  New 
Orleans  took  possession  of  several  English  places,  among 
them  Ft.  Manchac,  Baton  Rouge,  and  Natchez  on  the  lower 
Mississippi,  and  Mobile  and  Pensacola  in  the  Floridas. 

It  should  also  be  noted  that  the  French  settlers  in  the 
Missouri  country,  which  as  we  have  seen  had  been  under 
Spanish  rule  since  1769,  had  given  General  Clark  active 
assistance  by  way  of  furnishing  him  and  his  soldiers  with 
food  supplies  at  the  time  he  had  captured  Kaskaskia  and 
Cahokia  in  the  Illinois  country. 

It  was  just  this  c(jmbination  of  circumstances  that 
compelled  England  to  turn  her  attention  to  the  situation 
along  the  Mississippi.  Plans  were  therefore  laid  not  only 
for  the  recovery  of  the  places  east  of  the  Mississippi  that 
had  been  seized  by  Clark  and  by  the  Spanish  Governor  at 
New  Orleans,  but  for  the  capture  of  vSpanish  Louisiana  also. 
The  attack  upon  St.  Louis  in  1780  was  the  first  effort  that 
was  put  forth  to  realize  this  rather  comprehensive  scheme 
of  the  English.  When  this  first  effort  should  have  l^een 
carried,  then  the  towns  in  the  Illinois  country  were  to 
be  recaptured  and  a  descent  upon  New  Orleans  under- 
taken. 


Attack  on  8t.  Louis,  1780  19 

It  seems  that  the  Enghsh  authorities  planned  to  depend 
very  largely  on  the  Indians  for  the  success  of  these  campaigns, 
and  several  tribes  in  the  region  of  the  Great  Lakes  were 
enlisted  in  the  cause.  In  May,  1780,  a  force  of  almost 
950  traders,  servants,  and  Indians,  mostly  Indians,  set  out 
from  the  portage  of  the  Fox  and  Wisconsin  Rivers  for  St. 
Louis,  a  journey  of  about  five  hundred  miles.  They  came 
down  the  Wisconsin  to  the  Mississippi,  and  thence  down  the 
Mississippi  to  St.  Louis.  At  the  same  time  the  English 
organized  three  other  expeditions  made  up  largely  of  Indians 
and  sent  them  from  the  region  of  the  Great  Lakes  into  what 
is  now  Illinois,  Indiana,  and  Ohio. 

St.  Louis  was  at  the  time  of  the  attack  a  village  of 
about  one  hundred  and  twenty  houses,  chiefly  of  stone,  and 
had  a  population  of  about  eight  hundred,  most  of  whom 
were  French.  It  was  in  a  fairly  flourishing  condition  owing 
to  the  great  activity  of  the  fur  trade  which  centered  there. 
The  Spanish  garrison  contained  about  fifty  men  under  the 
command  of  Captain  Fernando  de  Leyba. 

The  village  was  in  no  condition  to  defend  itself  against 
any  well  organized  attack.  But  as  soon  as  word  reached 
the  people  that  a  large  body  of  Indians  was  descending 
the  river  bent  upon  an  attack,  preparations  were  made  for 
defense  as  well  as  the  situation  would  permit.  Intrenchments 
were  thrown  up,  a  platform  was  erected  at  one  end  of  th(! 
town  upon  whicii  were  placed  five  cannons,  orders  were 
sent  to  nearl)y  forts  for  assistance,  scouts  were  sent  out, 
and  cavalry  men  stationed  as  picket  guards.  A  force  of 
twenty-nine  regulars  and  two  hundred  and  eighty-one 
villagers  manned  the  intrenchments  during  the  attack. 

The  enemy  reached  the  village  at  about  one  o'clock 
on  the  afternoon  of  May  26,  1780,  and  commenced  the 
attack  on  the  northern  end  at  once.  But  after  consideral)le 
firing  on  both  sides,  the  enemy  failed  to  break  through  the 
intrenchments  and  withdrew,  falling  upon  the  defenseless 


20 


Chapters  in  Missouri  History 


y 


farmers  who  lived  in  the  vicinity  of  the  village.     According 

to  the  Spanish  account  twenty-nine  were  killed  and  wounded, 

jO'^ ^.^  ^^j>^    ^i-iifl  tweiity-four  taken  prisoners;    according  to  a  British 

-^j-^    /*  report   seventy-four  persons  were  killed,  fifty-three  scalped 


''-K^and  thirty-four  taken  prisoners.     The  main  l)ody  of  this 
^      attacking  force  shortly  afterwards  crossed  the    Mississippi 


^i^^ 


■/^    ^   \    \  and  attempted  to  take  Cahokia,   but  failed.     They  then 

/VV^   \  retreated  in  two  divisions,  one  by  the  Mississippi  and  the 

other  directlj"  across  the  country  to  Mackinac. 

At  the  time  when  the  English  authorities  had  started 
this  attacking  force  of  Indians  on  their  way  to  St.  Louis, 
Clark  was  engaged  in  building  a  fort  on  the  Mississippi  five 
miles  below  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio.  Word  was"  brought  to 
him  of  the  impending  danger  and  he  left  his  work  at  once  for 
Cahokia.  He  reached  this  place  shortly  after  the  attack  had 
been  made  upon  St.  Louis  but  twenty-four  hours  before  the 
attack  upon  Cahokia.  After  the  withdrawal  of  the  enemy 
he  organized  an  expedition  of  350  men  which  he  put  under 
Col.  Montgomery  to  pursue  those  retreating  up  the  Miss- 
issippi. He  organized  another  force  which  he  directed 
towards  Kentucky  to  head  off  the  Indian  expeditions  which 
the  English  had  directed  towards  the  Ohio  River. 

Thus    ended   the    rather    comprehensive    plan    of   the 
English  for  recovering  the  territory  they  had  lost  along  the 
Mississippi  and  for  seizing  the  Spanish  possessions  west  of 
that  river.  /The  failure  of  this  plan  has  been  ascribed  to 
the  fact  that  the  Indians  became  aware  that  Clark  was  at 
hand,  and  their  fear  of  him  was  such  as  to  cause  them  to 
withdraw  from  further  operations./ 
i^^V^'jj-'        This  attack  upon  St.  Louis  by  the  English  was  answered 
vVtA'  ^     the  next  year  by  an  attack  by  the  Spanish  upon  an  English 
j'fort  called  St.  Joseph  on  the  southeastern  shore  of  Lake 
Michigan.     In  January,    1781,   Cruzat,   the  Spanish  Lieu- 
tenant Governor  of  Upper  Louisiana  organized  a  military 
expedition  in  St.   Louis  to  invade  the  British  possessions 


Attack  on  St.  Louis.  1780  21 

lying  along  the  CJroat  Lakes.  The  foree  consisted  of  sixty- 
six  Spaniards  and  French  and  sixty  Indians.  They  marched 
in  midwinter  through  the  wilderness  from  St.  Louis  to  St. 
Joseph  and  on  arriving  plundered  the  fort  and  distributed 
the  supplies  they  found  there  among  their  Indian  allies. 
After  remaining  at  the  fort  a  few  days,  the  expedition 
returned  to  St.  Louis,  bringing  the  British  flag  which  had 
been  taken  at  St.  Joseph,  and  delivering  it  to  Cruzat.  It 
should  be  said  here  that  this  capture  of  St.  Joseph  was 
made  a  basis  for  claims  to  territory  which  Spain  demanded 
in  the  region  of  the  Great  Lakes  while  negotiations  for  peace 
were  being  made  at  the  close  of  the  American  revolution  in 
1783. 

References: — For  further  reading  on  the  Attack  upon  St.  Lguis 
see  HoucK,  Hintory  of  Misnouri^  II,  .33-46;  Winsor,  Westwai'd  Move- 
ment, 170-4;  James,  Significanceof  the  Attack  on  St.  Louis  in  Proceed- 
ings of  the  Mississippi  Valley  Historical  Association,  1908-09,  199-217. 
On  the  Capture  of  St  .Joseph  in  1781  see  Taggart,  Capture  of  St.  Joseph, 
in  the  Missouri  Historical  Review,  V,  No.  4,  214-28. 


\^y^ 


CHAPTER   III. 

CONDITIONS  IN  MISSOURI  IN  1803. 

[This  ehapt(>r  should  be  usetl  after  a  study  has  been  made  of  the 
Purchase  of  Louisiana  in  1803.  James  &  Sanford,  247;  Muzzey,  209; 
Channing,  340;  Hart,  267;  Montgomery,  276;  McLaughlin,  265;  Lar- 
ned,  3L5.  It  is  [M-esumed  that  the  students  in  their  study  of  the  Pur- 
chase of  Louisiana  will  have  learned  about  the  retrocession  of  Louisi- 
ana to  France  by  the  Treaty  of  San  Ildefonso  in  1800,  and  of  the  nego- 
tiations that  led  up  to  the  Purchase  in  1803.] 

In  a  preceding  chapter  we  saw  something  of  the  situa- 
tion in  what  is  now  Missouri  at  the  time  when  Spain  acquired 
it  as  a  part  of  the  territory  that  had  been  ceded  by  France 
by  the  Treaty  of  Paris  in  1763.  It  is  now  proposed  to  bring 
under  review  the  conditions  in  what  is  now  Missouri  at  the 
time  when  the  United  States  acquired  it  as  part  of  the 
Louisiana  Purchase  from  France,  that  is  in  1803. 

After  the  treaty  ceding  Louisiana  to  the  United  States 
had  been  ratified  by  Congress,  the  formal  transfer  of  the 
territory  had  to  be  made.  But  before  this  transfer  could 
be  made  it  was  necessary  for  France  to  acquire  actual 
possession  of  the  territory  from  Spain.  For  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  Spain  had  by  the  Treaty  of  San  Ildefonso  in  1800 
agreed  to  return  Louisiana  to  France,  the  actual  transfer 
had  not  been  made  when  France  agreed  in  April,  1803,  to 
sell  it  to  the  L^nited  States,  nor  even  yet  when  Congress 
ratified  the  treaty  in  October  of  that  same  year.  France  had 
had  a  representative  at  New  Orleans  ever  since  the  treaty 
of  San  Ildefonso  had  been  made  in  1800,  but  he  did  not  assume 
authority  over  Lower  Louisiana  until  December,  1803.  What 
is  more  the  formal  transfer  of  Upper  Louisiana  was  not 
made  at  St.  Louis  until  March  9,  1804,  and  when  it  was 
made  an  American  acted  as  the  agent  of  the  French  govern- 
ment. Acting  under  orders  from  Laussat,  the  French 
Governor-General  of  Louisiana  at  New  Orleans,  Captain 
Amos   Stoddard   of  the   American   army  went   from  New 

22 


Conditions  in  Missouri  in  1803  23 

Orleans  to  St.  Louis  where  he  received  from  De  Lassus, 
the  Spanish  Lieutenant  Governor,  the  possession  of  Upper 
Louisiana  on  March  9,  1804,  for  the  government  of  France. 
With  special  ceremony  the  Spanish  flag  was  lowered  and  the 
flag  of  France  was  raised  in  its  stead. 

But  this  ceremony  was  immediately  followed  on  the 
same  day  with  another  which  marked  the  transfer  of  Upper 
Louisiana  from  France  to  the  United  States.  Captain 
Stoddard  had  not  only  been  commissioned  to  receive  this  terri- 
tory from  Spain  for  France,  but  he  also  had  been  authorized 
to  act  for  United  States  and  to  declare  the  formal  transfer 
of  the  same  territory  from  France  to  the  United  States. 
He  therefore  lowered  the  French  flag  shortly  after  it  had 
been  raised  and  hoisted  the  American  flag  in  its  place.  He 
thereupon  assumed  the  duties  of  Governor  of  Upper  Louis- 
iana for  the  United  States.  Former  Governor  DeLassus 
then  sent  proclamations  to  the  different  settlements  in 
what  is  now  Missouri  notifying  them  of  the  transfers  that 
had  been  made. 

At  the  time  of  the  transfer  what  is  now  Missouri  had 
a  population  of  10,000  as  compared  with  1,000  in  1769 
w^hen,  as  we  have  seen,  Spain  assumed  control  over  Louisi- 
ana. This  large  increase  was  due  in  great  part  to  the  im- 
migration from  the  territory  to  the  east  of  the  Mississippi 
river,  the  causes  for  which  may  be  summarized  as  follows: 

1.  The  treaty  of  peace  between  England  and  the 
United  States  in  1783.  This  treaty  transferred  the  terri- 
tory between  the  Misissippi  and  the  Alleghany  Mountains 
to  the  Americans,  and  many  of  the  French  settlers  who 
were  yet  living  in  the  Illinois  country  disliked  the  idea  of 
living  under  American  rule  and  therefore  moved  to  the 
French  settlements  in  what  is  now  Missouri.  In  fact  a 
good  many  moved  over  at  the  time  of  the  George  Rogers 
Clark  expedition  in  1778-79. 


24 


Chapters  in  Missouri  History 


2.  The  Northwest  Ordinance  of  1787.  This  ordinance 
pi()hit)ited  slavery  in  the  region  north  of  the  Ohio  river  and 
south  of  the  Great  Lakes.  The  effect  of  this  prohibition, 
as  far  as  what  is  now  Missouri  is  concerned,  was  to  drive 
many  people  of  the  Northwest  Territory  into  Missouri 
and  to  deflect  into  this  country  the  current  of  population 
that  had  been  flowing  from  Kentucky  into  the  territory 
north  of  the  Ohio,— As  yet  however  most  of  the  immigrants 
who  came  to  Missouri  because  of  the  Northwest  Ordinance 
were  Frenchmen  from  the  lUinois  country. 

3.  The  special  inducements  offered  by  the  Spanish 
government  to  new  settlers.  For  several  years  after  the 
close  of  the  American  Revolution,  Spanish  authorities 
carried  on  intrigues  with  certain  Americans  in  the  Kentucky 
and  Tennessee  regions  looking  towards  the  breaking  up  of 
the  newly  formed  American  Union  and  the  attachment  of 
those  western  regions  to  Spain  A  stop  was  put  to  all  of 
this  intriguing  by  the  treaty  made  between  the  United 
States  and  Spain  in  1795. 

Failing  in  her  plans  for  withdrawing  of  the  Kentucky 
and  Tennessee  regions  from  the  Union,  and  fearing  an  in- 
vasion of  Louisiana  by  the  English  from  Canada,  Spain 
now  inaugurated  a  scheme  to  draw  settlers  from  the  United 
States  into  Louisiana  by  offering  them  extraordinary  in- 
ducements. Lands  were  granted  freely  to  all  settlers,  the 
only  expense  being  the  fees  for  surveying  and  registration. 
It  has  been  estimated  that  a  farm  of  800  acres  could  be 
obtained  for  $41  plus  the  fees  of  the  surveyors  and  registra- 
tion officials.  To  make  it  all  the  easier  for  the  prospective 
settler,  he  might  obtain  possession  of  his  grant  at  once  and 
pay  these  obligations  later.  Taxation  was  reduced  to 
practically  nothing.  Moreover,  the  Spanish  government 
made  no  discrimination  between  Catholics  and  Protestants 
in  making  these  grants.  In  1790  the  King  of  Spain  gave 
orders  that  no  settler  should  be  disturbed  in  the  exercise  of 


Conditions  in  Missouri  in  1803  25 

his  religion,  and  the  officials  in  Upper  Louisiana  ignored  the 
regulations  that  had  been  prescribed  regarding  immigrants, 
especially  those  that  bore  heavily  upon  non-Catholics. 

The  easy  terms  thus  offered  and  the  prospect  of  finding 
lead  on  the  grants  of  land,  induced  many  people  to  leave 
their  homes  east  of  the  Mississippi  and  come  into  what  is 
now  Missouri.  It  was  from  this  time  that  Americans  began 
to  come  in  large  numbers  and  it  is  believed  that  the  first 
ones  to  come  into  what  is  now  Missouri  came  to  St.  Louis 
in  1781.  A  few  Americans  came  in  the  next  decade  but  it 
was  not  until  the  late  nineties  that  they  began  to  come  in 
large  numbers. 

4.  The  Purchase  oi  Louisiana.  This  had  a  decided 
effect  upon  American  immigration  into  what  is  now  Mis- 
souri. Men  who  had  hesitated  to  come  into  this  country 
because  of  their  objection  to  foreign  rule  found  that  objection 
was  removed  when  the  United  States  purchased  Louisiana. 
By  the  time  of  the  transfer  of  Louisiana  to  the  United  States 
in  1804,  the  population  of  what  is  now  Missouri  had  risen 
to  10,000,  more  than  half  of  which  was  American.  It  should 
be  noted  that  though  Spain  had  control  of  what  is  now  Mis- 
souri for  nearly  thirty-five  years  prior  to  the  purchase  of 
Louisiana,  very  few  Spaniards  settled  there.  The  popula- 
tion was  of  French  descent  almost  exclusively  until  near 
the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century  when  as  we  have  seen, 
the  Americans  began  to  come  in  such  numbers  as  to  pre- 
dominate by  1804.  By  1810  the  population  had  grown  to 
be  20,845  or  twice  what  it  was  in  1804.  The  increase  was 
primarily  due  to  American  immigration. 

At  the  time  when  the  popluation  of  what  is  now  Missouri 
numbered  only  900  or  1000  there  were  only  two  settlements, 
St.  Genevieve  and  St.  Louis.  The  history  of  their  founding 
was  outlined  in  a  former  chapter.  We  have  first  seen  that 
during  the  period  of  the  Spanish  rule,  that  is  from  1769  to 


2()  Chapters  in  Missouri  History 

1804,  th(>  population  had  ris(ni  to  1  (),()()().  A  few  words 
should  be  said  here  concerninfi;  the  most  important  of  the 
new  settlements  that  were  established  during  this  period, 
and  the  most  convenient  order  of  considering  them  will  be 
according  to  the  five  districts  into  which  the  Spanish  author- 
ities had  grouped  them.  .  We  shall  commence  at  the  north 
and  pass  to  the  south. 

The  northern  most  district  was  called  St.  Charles.  It 
included  all  the  territory  lying  between  the  Missouri  and 
the  Mississippi  rivers.  Its  oldest  settlement  was  St.  Charles 
which  was  founded  about  1780  on  the  north  bank  of  the 
Missouri,  twenty  miles  above  its  mouth.  The  founder  was 
Louis  Blanchette,  commonly  known  as  Blanchette  le 
Chasseur,  the  hunter,  a  native  of  the  Province  of  Quebec, 
Canada. 

The  village  was  originally  known  as  Les  Petite  Cotes 
(Little  Hills)  or  Village  des  Cotes  (Village  of  the  Hills), 
because  of  the  fact  that  it  was  situated  at  the  foot  of  a  range 
of  small  hills  rising  up  from  the  northern  bank  of  the  Missouri 
river.  For  a  time  it  was  known  officially  at  New  Orleans  as 
San  Fernando,  but  just  before  the  Purchase  of  Louisiana 
is  came  to  be  called  officially  San  Carlos  del  Missouri  or 
St.  Charles  of  the  Missouri. 

The  houses  of  the  village  were  built  along  one  street 
that  ran  for  about  a  mile  parallel  to  the  river.  Up  to  the 
time  of  the  purchase  of  Louisiana  the  population  was  almost 
entirely  French  Canadian  and  never  amounted  to  more 
than  one  hundred  families.  The  villagers  cultivated  two 
common  fields  that  lay  adjoining  the  village  but  they  were 
chiefly  interested  in  hunting  and  fur  trading,  and  the  place 
remained  for  a  long  time  the  headquarters  of  the  fur  trading 
industry  along  the  Missouri  river. 

There  was  another  French  settlement  in  this  district 
which  was  situated  on  the  Misisissippi  on  the  tongue  of  land 
that  lay  between  that  river  and  the  Missouri  and  was  called 


Conditions  in  Missouri  in  1803  27 

Portage  des  Sioux.  It  was  established  by  the  Spanish  author- 
ities in  1799  as  an  offset  to  a  settlement  which  they  thought 
the  Americans  were  going  to  establish  near  the  mouth  of 
the  Missouri  on  the  Illinois  side.  Like  St.  Charles  it  con- 
tained very  few  Americans  prior  to  the  purchase  of  Louisiana. 

There  was  another  French  settlement  in  this  district 
fifty  miles  up  the  Missouri  from  St.  Charles  called  La  Charette 
which  is  now  known  as  Marthasville.  It  never  amounted  to 
anything  in  the  period  we  are  considering.  As  late  as  1804 
it  had  only  seven  very  poor  families. 

:  The  Americans  that  were  in  this  district  at  the  time  of 
the  purchase  did  not  live  in  villages  as  a  rule  but  in  scattered 
and  detached  farms  along  the  Cuivre  River  and  the  Dar- 
denne  and  Perruque  Creeks  which  flowed  into  the  Mississippi 
river,  and  along  La  Charette  and  Femme  Osage  Creeks 
which  were  tributary  to  the  Missouri.  They  were  most 
numerous  along  the  Dardenne. 

St.  Louis  district  embraced  all  the  territory  between 
the  Missouri  river  on  the  north  and  the  Meramec  on  the 
south,  and  extended  indefinitely  to  the  west. 

The  largest  and  oldest  settlement  was  St.  Louis:which, 
as  we  have  already  seen,  was  founded  in  1764.  Ijts  growth 
had  been  rather  slow  at  first  but  by  1804  it  had  come^  to  be 
a  place  of  about  1,000.  Its  interests  were  still  chiefly  those 
of  fur  trading  and  its  population  was  still  predominantly 
French. 

Besides  St.  Louis  there  were  several  other  settlements 
in  the  district  by  1804..  Some  of  them  were  distinctly 
French,  such  as  Carondelet,  Florissant,  Creve  Coeur,  and 
Point  Labadie.  Carondelet  had  been  founded  by  Delor  de 
Treget  of  Ste.  Genevieve  probably  in  1767.  It  was  located 
about  six  miles  to  the  south  of  St.  Louis  on  some  hills  that 
gently  sloped  to  the  Misisssippi  river  near  the  mouth  of 
the  River  Des  Peres.  It  was  first  called  Delor's  Village 
and,  after  several  other  names  were  applied  to  it,  was  called 


28  Chapters  in  Missouri  History 

Carondelet  in  honor  of  the  Governor-General  of  Tvouisiana. 
It  was  nicknamed  V'idi  Poche  (Empty  Pocket)  by  the  people 
of  St.  Louis.  It  grew  slowly  at  first  and  by  1804  it  had  only 
fifty  houses  and  two  hundred  and  fifty  people.  It  is  now  a 
part  of  the  city  of  St.  Louis. 

Florissant  was  next  to  the  largest  of  the  settlements 
in  the  district  in  1804.  It  contained  about  sixty  houses 
and  about  three  hundred  people.  Its  date  of  settlement  is 
not  known  but-  it  is  supposed  that  French  immigrants  from 
the  Illinois  country  began  to  come  here  at  about  the  time 
Laclede  founded  St.  Louis.  It  was  situated  on  Cold  Water 
Creek,  a  tributary  of  the  Missouri,  about  twelve  miles 
northwest  of  St.  Louis. 

Creve  Coeur  and  Point  Labadie  were  small  French 
settlements  further  up  on  the  Missouri.  Creve  Coeur 
means  "broken  heart"  and  was  probably  derived  from  the 
sickness  and  death  of  the  settlers  at  this  place  after  the 
overflow  of  the  Missouri  in  1796. 

By  1804  a  good  many  Americans  had  settled  in  this 
district,  but  most  of  them  had  made  their  way  further 
westward  and  southward  than  the  French  had  gone,  and 
instead  of  settling  in  villages  had  located  themselves 
on  isolated  homesteads.  They  were  to  be  found  on  the 
creeks  that  w^ere  tributary  to  the  Missouri  and  Meramec 
rivers.  The  first  American  settlement  seems  to  have  been 
on  the  Meramec. 

Ste.  Genevieve  District  lay  between  the  Meramec 
River  on  the  north  and  Apple  Creek  on  the  south.  The 
village  of  Ste.  Genevieve  was,  as  we  have  already  seen,  the 
first  permanent  white  settlement  established  in  what  is  now 
Missouri.  By  1803  several  other  settlements  had  been 
established  in  this  district,  the  areas  of  settlement  being 
the  land  lying  along  the  Mississippi  river  and  the  valleys 
of  the  St.  Francois  and  Big  Rivers  to  the  west.  Some  of 
the  settlements  along  the  Mississippi  river  were  established 


Conditions  in  Missouri  in  1803  29 

by  French  anil  some  by  Americans,  the  most  important 
American  settlements  being  on  Apple  Creek  to  the  south 
and  on  Meramec  River  to  the  north.  As  in  other  districts 
the  French  for  the  most  part  gathered  in  villages  and  the 
Americans  took  to  detached  farms. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  of  the  settlements  established 
along  the  Mississippi  river  during  this  period  was  called 
New  Bourbon.  It  lay  two  and  a  half  miles  from  the  site 
of  old  Ste.  Genevieve  and  was  estab'ished  by  order  of 
Governor  Carondelet  in  1793.  It  was  intended  to  bring  to 
this  place  a  number  of  French  royal  families  who  had  settled 
at  Gallipolis  on  the  Ohio  River  in  what  is  now  Ohio.  They 
had  become  dissatisfied  there  and  it  was  thought  they  might 
be  induced  to  come  to  this  new  settlement  in  Ste.  Genevieve 
district.  However  onlj^  a  very  few  came,  but  the  village 
grew  in  time  to  have  a  population  of  over  one  hundred. 
It  has  since  disappeared. 

In  the  valleys  of  the  St.  Francois  and  Big  Rivers,  settle- 
ments were  formed  by  Americans  who  were  interested  in 
mining  and  in  farming.  Although  the  French  carried  on 
mining  operations  in  these  valleys  from  very  early  days, 
they  do  not  seem  to  have  established  any  permanent  settle- 
ments there  until  late  in  the  eighteenth  century.  Up  to 
that  time  they  retained  their  residences  in  Ste.  Genevieve 
or  in  the  villages  in  the  lUniois  country  and  merely  camped 
around  their  mines  during  the  mining  season.  The  best 
known,  if  not  the  most  important  of  the  American  settle- 
ments in  this  part  of  the  district,  was  called  Mine  a  Breton 
or  Burton  near  Potosi.  There  seems  to  have  been  a  con- 
tinuous settlement  at  this  place  from  the  time  lead  was 
discovered  there  by  Francis  Azordit  Breton  in  1775,  but  it 
was  not  until  Moses  Austin  obtained  a  grant  of  one  l(>ague 
square  near  the  Azor  mine  that  the  place  attained  any  prom- 
inence. Austin  was  a  pewter  manufacturer  in  Richmond, 
Virginia.     His   business  led   him   to  become  interested   in 


30  Chapterw  in  Missouri  History 

mineralogy,  especially  lead  mining.  He  left  Richmond  and 
moved  to  Wythe  County,  Virginia,  where  he  operated  some 
hnid  mines  during  the  Revolutionary  War.  While  here  he 
heard  of  the  lead  mines  in  what  is  now  Missouri  and  there- 
upon made  a  visit  to  the  mines  of  Ste.  Genevieve  in  1796, 
coming  on  horseback  all  the  way.  After  receiving  a  grant 
of  land,  he  returned  to  Virginia  and  brought  his  family  to 
Mine  a  Breton  in  1798.  Here  he  sank  the  first  shaft  accord- 
ing to  European  practices  ever  sunk  in  Upper  Louisiana. 
The  settlement  grew  rather  rapidly  at  once  and  the  popula- 
tion was  large  enough  to  withstand  an  attack  of  Indians 
in  1799. 

Settlements  were  also  begun  in  the  St.  Francois  valley 
at  what  is  now  Farmington  and  Fredericktown.  Farming- 
ton  was  known  at  first  as  Murphy's  settlement  from  a  man 
by  that  name  who  came  from  Tennessee  in  1798.  Frederick- 
town  was  called  St.  Michael's  at  first  and  was  begun  in  1800. 
Contrary  to  the  rule  concerning  the  settlements  in  this 
valley,  it  was  a  purely  French  settlement  at  first  instead  of 
being  American. 

The  population  of  this  district  did  not  increase  very 
rapidly  up  to  1799.  But  in  the  next  five  years  it  ran  up 
from  1156  to  2870,  so  that  in  1804  Ste.  Genevieve  was  the 
most  populous  of  the  five  districts  in  what  is  now  Missouri, 
having  almost  one  hundred  more  than  St.  Louis  district. 
The  marked  increase  in  the  population  of  this  district  in 
the  five  years  prior  to  1804  was  due  to  the  fact  that  most  of 
the  French  who  left  the  Illinois  settlements  went  as  a  rule 
to  Ste.  Genevieve  District  and  did  not  scatter  out  into  the 
other  districts  very  much. 

Cape  Girardeau  district  was  bounded  on  the  north  by 
Apple  Creek  and  on  the  south  until  1802  by  Tywappity 
Bottom.  In  that  year  this  boundary  was  fixed  at  a  line 
running  east  and  west  four  or  five  miles  south  of  the  present 
town  of  Commerce,  Scott  County. 


Conditions  in  Missouri  in  1803'  31 

Before  any  settlement  was  made  in  this  district,  the 
name  of  Cape  Girardeau,  which  was  spelled  Cape  Girardot 
or  Girardo,  was  applied  to  the  region  along  the  bend  in  the 
Mississippi  to  the  north  of  the  present  town  of  CapeGirardeau. 
It  is  conjectured  that  the  name  was  derived  frorn  a  man 
named  Girardot  who  was  an  ensign  in  the  French  troops 
in  the  early  eighteenth  century  at  Kaskaskia.  It  is  supposed 
he  moved  from  Kaskaskia  to  the  beautifully  wooded  prom- 
onitory  on  the  west  side  of  the  Mississippi  above  the  present 
town  of  Cape  Girardeau,  and  traded  there  with  the  Indians. 
Because  of  this  the  river  men  who  passed  up  and  down  the 
river  gave  this  name  to  this  promonitory. 

The  first  permanent  white  settlement  established  in 
this  district  was  Cape  Girardeau.  To  Louis  Lorimier  belongs 
the  honor  of  having  founded  this  place.  Before  coming  to 
what  is  now  Missouri  he  had  been  an  Indian  trader  first  in 
Ohio  and  then  at  Vincennes,  Indiana.  By  1787  he  was  in 
the  Ste.  Genevieve  district  engaged  in  Indian  trade  having 
brought  a  large  number  of  Shawnee  and  Delaware  Indians 
with  him.  A  few  years  later  he  moved  to  the  present  site 
of  Cape  Girardeau  and  in  1795  he  received  grants  from 
Governor  Carondelet  which  authorized  him  to  establish 
himself  with  his  Indians  anywhere  on  the  west  bank  of  the 
Mississippi  river  from  the  Missouri  to  the  Arkansas  which 
was  unoccupied,  together  with  the  right  to  hunt  and  culti- 
vate the  soil.  As  he  had  already  found  what  is  now  Cape; 
Girardeau  to  be  a  suitable  locality  he  established  the  post 
there  and  became  its  commander.  The  place  was  never 
regularly  laid  out  as  a  village  or  town  by  Lorimier;  in  fact 
it  remained  all  during  the  Spanish  period  a  mere  Indian 
trading  post. 

By  1804  there  were  about  twelve  hundred  people  in 
this  district  in  settlements  along  the  Mississippi  and  along 
the  Whitewater  River  to  the  west.  The  vast  majority 
were  Americans,  who  began  to  come  in  large  numbers  about 
1797.     Most  of  these  Americans  came  from  Tennessee  and 


32  Chapters  in  Missouri  History 

North  Carolina,   and  many  of  them  were  of  German  or 
(ierman  Swiss  extraction. 

New  Madrid  District  lay  to  the  south  of  Cape  Girardeau 
District,  extending  as  far  south  as  the  mouth  of  St.  Francois 
river  near  Helena,  Arkansas.^ 

The  first  settlement  in  this  district  was  on  the  bend  of 
the  Mississippi  where  the  town  of  New  Madrid  now  stands. 
This  bend  was  called  L'Anse  a  la  Graise,  a  cove  of  fat  or 
grease.  Several  explanations  have  been  offered  for  this  name, 
among  which  was  the  abundance  of  game,  especially  bears  and 
buffaloes,  in  that  region.  Canadian  hunters  and  fur  traders 
made  this  bend  their  headquarters  about  1780,  and  in  six 
or  seven  years  a  few  people  had  permanently  settled  there. 
Among  them  were  Francis  and  Joseph  Le  Sieur  who  may  be 
considered  as  the  real  founders  of  New  Madrid. 

In  1789  efforts  were  made  by  Col.  George  Morgan  of 
Virginia  to  found  an  American  colony  at  L'Anse  a  la  Graise 
or  New  Madrid,  and  elaborate  plans  were  drawn  up  for  a 
town  of  considerable  magnitude.  Morgan  had  made  fre- 
quent trips  to  the  region  between  the  Alleghanys  and  the 
Mississippi  and  was  therefore  well  acquainted  with  conditions 
in  the  west.  He  had  suffered  some  reverses  of  fortune  and 
thought  he  saw  an  opportunity  to  recover  his  losses  by 
establishing  a  colony  on  the  west  side  of  the  Mississippi 
near  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio.  He  therefore  entered  into 
negotiations  with  Gardoqui,  the  Spanish  ambassador  _  to 
this  country,  and  was  promised  support  in  all  of  his  plans. 
He  was  assured  he  would  obtain  a  grant  of  nearly  15,000,000 
acres  of  land  extending  along  the  Mississippi  for  300  miles 
from  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Francois  River  to  what  is  now 
Perry  County,  Mo.     He  laid  down  certain  conditions  which 

1.  When  the  New  Madrid  District  was  first  formed,  it  included 
what  was  afterwards  known  as  Cape  Girardeau  District  as  no  settle- 
ments had  been  established  in  that,  region  until  after  New  Madrid 
District  had  been  formed. 


Conditions  in  Missouri  in  1803  33 

the  Spanish  government  was  to  observe,  among  which  were 
guarantees  of  the  right  of  local  self  government  on  the  part  of 
the  settlers,  and  exemption  from  practically  all  taxation.    He 
was  authorized  to  go  at  once  and  examine  the  territory  that 
was  to  be  granted  to  him  and  to  advertise  his  project  among 
the  people  of  the  west  whom  he  should  meet  on  his  way 
thither.  He  got  together  a  large  company  of  men  and  made  his 
way  down  the  Ohio.     He  reached  its  mouth  on  February  14, 
1789  and  crossed  over  to  the  west  side  of  the  Mississippi. 
After  making  a  trip  to  St.  Louis  under  great  difficulties  to 
deliver  a  letter  to  the  Spanish  commandant  there  from  the 
Spanish  Ambassador  regarding  his  project,  he  returned  to 
his  men  and  proceeded  to  lay  out  the  new  town  he  was 
going  to  establish  at  L'Anse  a  la  Graise,     The  town  was  to 
be  four  miles  long  and  two  miles  wide,  with  broad  streets 
parks  and  lots  reserved  for  pubhc  purposes.     One  city  lot 
of  one  half  acre  and  one  out  lot  of  five  acres  were  to  be  given 
as  a  free  gift  to  each  of  the  first  six  hundred  settlers  that 
would  come  to  this  new  place.   Cabins  and  a  magazine  for  pro- 
visions were  erected,  gardens  were  laid  out  and  preparations 
were  made  for  putting  one  hundred  acres  under  cultivation 
at  once.     Sufficient  land  for  three  hundred  and  fifty  families 
was  to  be  platted  into  farms  of  320   acres  each  for  pros- 
pective settlers.     Such  liberal  terms  were  granted  to  those 
who  would  come  that  it  was  expected  a  thousand  families 
would  settle  in  the  colony  annually  for  some  time  to  come. 
But  all  of  Morgan's  plans  were  doomed  never  to  be 
realized.     It  was  necessary  for  him  to  get  the  approval  of 
Miro,  the  Spanish  Governor  of  Louisiana  who  resided  at 
New  Orleans,  but  this  was  denied    him  because  of  certain 
schemes  in  which  Miro  and  Wilkinson  of  the  United  States 
army  were   interested.     Both   of  them   were   deep   in  the 
Spanish  intrigues  to  dismember  the  American  union,  men- 
tion of  which  has  already  been  made,  and  they  realized  that 
Morgan's  plans  would  work  contrary  to  their  schemes  and 


84  Chapters  in  Missouri  History 

interests.  Governor  Miro  thereupon  refused  to  give  his 
approval  and  Morgan's  plans  collapsed. 

Though  Morgan  was  compelled  to  abandon  his  effort 
to  establish  a  colony  at  New  Madrid,  the  extensive  advertis- 
ing he  had  done  drew  a  great  many  Americans  to  the  place 
in  spite  of  his  failure.  It  should  also  be  borne  in  mind  that 
just  about  this  time  Spain  was  making  her  extraordinary 
offers  to  prospective  immigrants  to  come  to  what  is  now 
Missouri,  and  Morgan's  campaign  of  publicity  served  to 
interest  people  more  and  more  in  these  Spanish  offers.  By 
1799  the  town  had  become  the  gateway  of  all  commerce  be- 
tween the  Gulf  of  Mexico  and  the  region  between  the  Alle- 
ghanys  and  the  Mississippi,  and  by  1804  the  district  had  a 
population  of  1500,  most  of  whom  were  in  the  town  of  New 
Madrid. 

In  this  district  the  settlements  were  established  for  the 
most  part  along  the  Mississippi  river.  Below  New  Madrid 
was  the  village  of  Little  Prairie,  now  called  Caruthersville 
which  had  been  founded  in  1790  by  Francis  Le  Sieur.  Many 
people  moved  to  it  from  New  Madrid.  The  place  remained 
prosperous  until  the  earthquake  of  1811.  A  few  settle- 
ments were  established  in  the  uplands  about  fifteen  miles 
west  of  the  Mississippi,  the  most  important  of  which  was 
Portageville.  Its  name  is  derived  from  the  fact  that  it 
stood  about  midway  on  the  portage  between  the  St.  Francoi.s 
and  Mississippi  Rivers. 

By  1803  the  Americans  considerably  exceeded  the  French 
in  numbers,  one  estimate  being  that  they  constituted 
two-thirds  of  the  entire  population  of  the  district.  Contrary 
to  the  usual  rule  the  Americans  settled  in  the  French  villages 
instead  of  on  isolated  farms. 

From  this  survey  we  see  that  by  1804  th(^  areas  of  settle- 
ment in  what  is  now  Missouri  were  first,  the  banks  of  the 
Mississippi  from  New  Madrid  to  St.  Louis,  and  of  the  Mis- 
souri for  about  forty  or  fifty  miles  up  from  its  mouth;  and 


Conditions  in  Missouri  in  1803 


35 


second,  the  back  country  which  consisted  of  the  uplands, 
just  to  the  west  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  valleys  of  the 
rivers  still  further  to  the  west,  such  as  the  lower  Meramec, 
Big,  Whitewater,  and  St.  Francois  rivers. 

For  the  most  part  the  French  settlers  gathered  in  villages 
in  the  first  of  these  areas.  The  most  important  villages,  St. 
Charles,  St.  Louis,  Ste.  Genevieve,  Cape  Girardeau,  and 
New  Madrid,  were  predominantly  French  except  Cape 
Girardeau  which  was  from  practically  the  very  first  an 
American  settlement.  While  the  American  settlers  some- 
times took  up  their  residence  in  villages  in  this  first  area 
of  settlement  either  by  themselves  or  with  the  French, 
they  generally  lived  out  on  scattered  and  isolated  farm 
settlements,  and  while  some  of  these  settlements  were  along 
the  Mississippi  and  the  Missouri,  most  of  them  were  in  the 
back  country  or  the  second  of  the  above  mentioned  areas 
of  settlement.^  /_ 


While  Spain  liad  control  of  Louisiana,  that  colony 
was  under  the  administi-aition  of  a  Governor-General  ap- 
pointed by  the  King  ancFa   council    called   Cabildo.     The 


1.  The  population  by  Districts  in  1804  was  as  follows: 

Whites 

St.  Charles 1400 

St.  Louis 2280 

Ste.  (lenevieve 23.'>0 

Cape  Girardeau 1470 

New  Madrid  1350 


Slaves 
150 

Total 
1550 

500 

2780 

520 

2870 

80 

1650 

150 

1500 

8850 


1.500         10, 3.50 


The  census  of  Delassus  in  1799  was  as  follows: 


St.  Louis    925 

Carondelet 184 

St.  Charles 875 

St.  Ferdinand   276 

Marais  des  Liards 376 

Meramec   115 


St.  Andre 393 

Ste.  Genevieve 949 

New  Bourbon 560 

Cape  Girardeau 521 

New  Madrid 282 

Little  Meadows 49 


6,028 


36  Chapters  in  Missouri  History 

Cxovernor-General  and  Council  resided  at  New  Orleans. 
The  colony  was  divided  for  purposes  of  administration 
into  two  provinces  called  Lower  and  Upper  Louisiana. 
What  is  now  Missouri  was  a  part  of  the  latter  province. 

For  Upper  Louisiana  there  was  a  Lieutenant  Governor 
who  resided  at  St.  Louis.  He  was  appointed  by  the  Gover- 
nor-General at  New  Orleans  and  was  subordinate  to  him. 
Under  the  Lieutenant  Governor  and  appointed  by  him  were 
Commandants  of  the  various  military  posts  throughout 
the  province.  The  Commandant  of  New  Madrid  was 
however  exempt  from  authority  of  Lieutenant  Governor. 
The  Commandants  in  turn  appointed  Syndics  for  the  re- 
mote settlements  of  their  districts  and  the  dependencies  of 
the  posts.  The  Syndics  and  most  of  Commandants  received 
no  pay  for  their  services.  This  sometimes  proved  a  heavy 
burden  upon  the  Commandants  because  of  the  free  enter- 
tainments to  Indians  and  others  which  they  had  to  furnish 
occasionally. 

In  the  administration  of  laws  the  process  was  very 
simple  and  direct.  Cases  that  fell  within  the  jurisdiction 
I   /  of  the    Commandant,   were  quickly  tried  by  them  or   by 

the  Syndics  who  acted  for  them.  After  hearing  the  state- 
ments of  both  parties  to  a  suit,  the  Commandant  or  Syndic 
would  give  his  decision,  which  as  a  usual  thing  was  accepted 
as  final.  However  an  appeal  might  be  taken  to  the  Lieu- 
tenant Governor  and  from  him  to  the  Governor  General, 
but  this  was  seldom  done.  Oftentimes  not  more  thap  four 
days  would  elapse  between  the  beginning  of  a  suit  and  the 
execution  of  the  decree  of  the  Commandant  or  Syndic. 

In  criminal  matters  either  the  Lieutenant  Governor 
would  go  to  the  place  where  the  crime  was  committeed  and 
try  the  case,  or  the  Commandant  would  try  it,  his  decision 
however  being  subject  to  an  appeal  to  the  Lieutenant  Gover- 
nor, and  from  him  to  the  Governor  General.  It  should 
also  be  noted  that  the  law  provided  for  still  further  appeals, 


Conditions  in  Missouri  in  1803  37 

the  last  tribunal  being  the  Council  of  the    Indies   in  Spain, 
but  it  was  seldom  that  appeal  of  any  sort  was  taken. 

In  addition  to  his  judicial  functions  the  Commandant 
exercised  extensive  administrative  and  military  authority. 
He  maintained  peace  and  order,  examined  pass  ports, 
which  every  traveller  was  compelled  to  have,  passed  upon 
requests  of  prospective  settlers  for  permission  to  take  up 
their  residence  in  the  district,  and  punished  slaves.  He  had 
the  rank  and  military  duties  of  Captain. 

Superior  to  the  Commandant  and  Syndic  was  the 
Lieutenant  Governor.  In  power  he  was  practically  absolute. 
He  was  commander  of  the  garrison  of  Spanish  soldiers  that 
had  been  sent  into  the  province  and  of  the  local  militia;  he 
was  the  chief  judicial  officer  and  as  such  could  hear  most 
all  cases  when  they  were  tried  the  first  time  or  could  enter- 
tain appeals  from  the  decisions  of  commandants;  he  issued 
decrees  or  laws  regulating  all  sorts  of  matters  in  the  province; 
he  made  grants  of  land  out  of  the  royal  domain;  he  ordered 
and  conducted  judicial  sales;  and  he  controlled  the  public 
affairs  of  the  province  without  the  interference  of  any  one. 
Of  course  in  all  these  matters  he  was  subordinate  either  to 
the  Governor  General  or  to  the  Intendant  who  had  authority 
regarding  land  grants. 

Except  in  very  unimportant  local  matters  the  people 
had  no  voice  in  the  government.  There  were  no  juries,  no 
elected  officials,  no  legislature  for  the  province  or  councils 
for  the  districts  or  villages.  However  no  one  seems  to  have 
offered  any  objection  to  this  way  of  doing.  Both  the  French 
and  American  settlors  seemed  to  like  it.  For  one  thing  the* 
Lieutenant  Governor  used  his  extraordinary  powers  mildly. 
He  might,  it  is  true,  take  propertj^  away  from  one  person 
and  give  it  to  another  without  any  judicial  process  as  he 
actually  did  in  the  case  of  a  woman  of  St.  Louis  who  refused 
to  keep  up  the  common  field  fence  in  front  of  her  lot,  but  he 
generally  acted  arbitrarily  only  when  there  was  some  cause  for 


38  Chapters  in  Missouri  History 

it.  Lieutenant  Ciovernors  were  men  of  rather  good  character 
and  sought  to  govern  to  the  best  interest  of  the  people, 
though  it  was  admitted  that  some  were  guilty  of  land  spec- ' 
ulations  and  fraudulent  land  grants.  Generally  speaking 
the  people  were  law  abiding  at  this  time  and  there  was  little 
crime  and  there  were  but  few  land  suits.  Where  crime  was 
committed  it  was  generally  punished  pretty  severely. 
Seditious  language,  slander  and  libel,  and  stealing  of  horses 
were  dealt  with  in  a  particularly  rigorous  way. 

The  French  as  we  have  seen  were  accustomed  to  Live 
in  villages.  They  built  their  houses  along  one  street  as  a 
rule,  though  sometimes  the  village  would  have  two  or  three 
streets.  Their  houses  stood  near  the  street  and .  were 
generally  built  of  hewn  logs  set  up  on  end  in  the  ground  or 
upon  plates  laid  upon  a  foundation  wall,  the  space  between 
the  l6gs  being  filled  with  stone,  clay  or  mortar.  They  were 
rarely  over  one  story  high  and  were  generally  wider  than 
they  werej^ep,  with  porches  running  along  the  whole 
leiigii*'"^!  the  front  and  the  rear.  The  roofs  over  these 
porches  were  a  continuation  of  the  roofs  over  the  house 
proper.  The  houses  were  generally  whitewashed  on  the 
outside,  and  on  the  ridge  of  the  roof  a  cross  was  often  placed. 

The  houses  of  the  well  to  do  had  a  chimney  in  the 
rniddle  which  divided  them  into  two  rooms,  each  of  which 
had  its  own  large  fire  place.  One  of  these  served  as  parlor, 
dining  room,  and  principal  bed  room,  and  the  other  as 
kitchen.  From  each  of  these  rooms  a  room  was  often  cut 
off  which  was  used  as  a  private  bed  room.  Sometimes  the 
houses  had  spacious  halls  running  through  the  center  from 
the  front  to  the  back,  and  large  chimneys  at  the  two  ends. 
The  chimneys  were  generally  made  by  planting  four  posts  so 
that  they  would  converge  towards  the  top,  making  the  open- 
ing at  the  top  almost  half  as  large  as  at  the  hearth.  The 
spaces  between  the  posts  were  filled  with  rock  and  mortar. 


Conditions  in  Missouri  in  1803  39 

Sometimes  however  the  wealthier  used  stone  in  constructing 
their  chimneys. 

In  some  cases,  especially  when  servants  were  owned, 
the  kitchen  was  in  a  detached  building  several  steps  away 
from  the  main  house,  but  whether  the  kitchen  was  in  the 
main  house  or  in  a  detached  building  the  cooking  was  done 
in  a  fire  place. 

Some  of  the  houses  had  no  garrets  but  in  case  they  did, 
the  garrets  were  reached  by  means  of  ladders  and  were 
lighted  by  dormer  windows  or  by  windows  at  the  gable  ends. 

The  floors  were  sometimes  made  of  plJuik__that  were 
well  jointed,  but  most  generally  they  were  madeof  puncheons, 
that  is  logs  that  had  been  hewed  and  joined  together. 

Usually  there  was  a  window  of  eight  or  ten  panes  of 
glass  to  each  room.  These  windows  were  hinged  so  as  to 
open  like  doors,  and  were  protected  on  the  outside  with 
heavy  wooden  shutters  which  could  be  closed  when  there 
was  danger  of  attack  from  Indians. 

When  one  is  reminded  that  all  the  timber  that  was  used 
in  the  construction  of  houses  in  what  is  now  Missouri  during 
this  period  was  prepared  by  hand,  he  will  realize  what  a 
task  it  must  have  been  to  erect  one  with  even  the  poorest 
of  accommodations.  Moreover  all  the  nails  were  made 
by  hand  so  that  most  of  the  timbers  had  to  be  mortised  and 
fastened  together  with  wooden  pegs. 

The  furniture  in  these  houses  was  very  simple,  con- 
sisting of  beds,  looking  glasses,  a  tabfe  or  two,  and  some 
chairs. 

Inasmuch  as  the  house  stood  near  the  street  the  front 
yards  were  very  small  but  the  back  yards  were  unusually 
large.  Here  were  to  be  found  the  barns,  outbuildings,  and 
quarters  for  the  negro  or  Indian  slaves.  The  yards  were 
enclosed  with  fences  that  were  built  of  pickets  that  were 
driven  into  the  ground.  Beyond  the  back  yards  were  the 
vegetable  and  flower  gardens  and  the  orchards,  which 
were  also  (Miclosed  with  picket  fences. 


40  Chapters  in  Missouri  History 

Agriculture  was  tho  chief  occupation  of  the  villagers. 
Their  farms  lay  in  a  great  common  field,  adjoining  or  near 
the  village.  This  field  was  divided  into  farm  lots  which 
were  much  deeper  than  they  were  wide.  In  St.  Louis  the 
lots  were  one  arpent  wide  and  forty  deep,  an  arpent 
being  a  little  over  one  hundred  and  ninety  feet.  As  a 
rule  these  lots  lay  parallel  to  each  other,  thus  having  a  com- 
mon front.  Some  of  the  fields  were  of  considerable  size, 
that  at  Ste.  Genevieve  containing  3,000  acres,  which 
by  the  way,  is  still  in  use.  The  whole  field  was  enclosed 
by  a  common  fence  and  each  villager  was  required  to  keep 
up  his  part.  The  common  fence  was  under  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  syndic  of  the  place  and  a  committee  of  umpires. 
These  umpires  inspected  the  fence  each  year  in  January  and 
reported  to  the  syndic  when  it  needed  repairing.  It  was 
necessary  to  build  fences  that  were  proof  against  cattle 
breaking  through. 

The  agricultural  implements  used  by  these  villagers 
were  very  crude.  Plows  were  made  entirely  of  wood, 
save  a  single  iron  fastening.  Hoes,  spades,  mattocks, 
and  rakes  were  heavy  and  clumsy.  As  a  usual  thing  each 
village  owned  a  harrow  or  two  which  was  used  in  common. 
Owing  to  the  primitive  implements  and  the  unscientific 
methods  of  cultivation  employed,  the  crop  returns  were 
very  light  and  yet  the  prices  that  crops  brought  were  good. 

The  carts  or  charettes  were  very  odd  and  because  they 
had  no  iron  tires,  the  American  settlers  called  them  bare- 
footed carts.  They  were  made  of  two  pieces  of  scantling, 
ten  or  twelve  feet  long,  framed  together  at  one  end  by  two 
or  more  cross  pieces;  upon  this  end  the  body  of  wicker  was 
placed,  and  the  whole  was  adjusted  to  the  axle  trees  of  the 
two  wheels.  The  projecting  ends  of  the  scantling  served 
as  shafts.  This  sort  of  a  cart  was  used  for  transportation 
of  all  sorts.  Laclede  used  one  in  moving  his  family  from 
Cahokia  to  St.  Louis  in  1764. 


Conditions  in  Mii*isouHi  in  1803  41 

Though  agriculture  was  the  chief  occupation  of  the 
settlers  in  these  French  villages,  every  one  engaged  more 
or  less  in  hunting  and  in  trading  in  furs.  Many  were 
accustomed  to  go  out  annually  on  long  expeditions  far  up 
the  Mississippi  and  the  Missouri  either  on  their  own  account 
or  as  employees  of  others.  The  most  valuable  of  furs  would 
often  be  purchased  from  the  Indians  with  trinkets  of  various 
sorts,  knives,  awls,  hatchets,  kettles,  gay  red  blankets 
and  the  like.  Oftentimes  the  forest  trader  forsook  civilized 
life  almost  altogether  and  allied  himself  in  marriage  with 
some  one  of  the  Indian  tribes  and  l^ecame  as  much  a  savage 
as  they. 

In  some  of  the  villages  there  were  stone  masons,  black- 
smiths, gunsmiths  and  cabinet  makers.  Spinning  and 
weaving  were  domestic  industries.  The  merchants  of  that 
time  kept  no  open  shops  but  stored  their  merchandise  awaj^ 
in  chests  in  their  homes  and  opened  them  up  to  prospective 
purchasers  as  they  were  called  upon. 

Distant  markets  were  generally  reached  by  boats  running 
up  and  down  the  Mississippi  or  the  Ohio.  Boats  coming  up 
the  Mississippi  were  generally  propelled  by  oars  and  when 
the  wind  was  favorable,  a  sail  was  hoisted.  But  as  a  usual 
thing  they  were  towed  up  the  river  by  men  walking  along 
the  bank  and  pulling  upon  a  rope  fastened  to  the  top  of 
the  mast  and  to  the  bow  of  the  boat.  The  labor  necessary 
to  get  a  boat  up  the  Mississippi  is  almost  inconceivable 
at  this  da5^  Of  course  the  going  down  the  Mississippi  was 
very  easy.  As  a  usual  thing  the  trip  was  made  in  flatboats 
which  after  the  cargo  was  disposed  of  were  broken  up  and 
the  timber  in  them  sold.  The  crews  if  they  returned  would 
come  by  land  as  best  they  could. 

The  dress  of  the  French  settlers  was  j:>lain  and  simple 
The  men  wore  a  blanket  coat  of  coarse  cloth  with  a  cape 
behind  which  could  be  thrown  over  the  head.  Both  men 
and  women  wore  blue  handkerchiefs  over  their  heads  in 


42 


Chapters  in  Missouri  History 


stead  of  hats.  They  also  wore  mocassins  or  Indian  sandals 
on  their  feet.  The  women  followed  the  fashions  of  New 
Orleans  and  Paris  as  far  as  they  could,  and  hence  appeared 
neater  than  the  men.  But  the  men  seemed  to  have  been 
provided  with  proper  and  neat  dress  for  church  and  ball 
room. 

Though  the  French  settlers  were  living  largely  in  isola- 
tion from  the  world,  they  maintained  in  their  manners  and 
customs  many  of  the  traits  and  characteristics  of  the  natioil 
from  which  they  were  descended.  They  were  noted  for 
their  courtesy  and  politeness,  their  fondness  for  amusement, 
their  happy  dispositions,  their  hospitality  and  democracy 
of  spirit,  their  honesty  and  punctuality  in  meeting 
their  obligations,  their  freedom  from  anxiety,  and  their 
peacefulness  and  abhorrence  of  crime.  Their  chief  amuse- 
ents  were  card  playing,  billiards,  and  dancing.  At  the 
alls  all  classes  met  and  mingled  in  perfect  equality,  and 
the  strictest  decorum  was  observed.  These  balls  were 
generally  held  on  Sundays  after  church  services. 

They  maintained  private  schools  in  many  of  the  villages 
in  connection  with  the  village  churches,  in  which  some  sort 
of  elementary  instruction  was  offered. 

They  were  Catholic  in  religion  and  gave  a  great  deal  of 
attention  to  religious  festivals  and  processions.  The 
Christmas  holidays  were  celebrated  with  specially  attractive 
ceremonies. 

The  American  settlers  as  we  have  seen,  preferred  as  a 
rule  to  live  not  in  villages  but  in  isolated  farm  homesteads. 
Their  dwellings  were  somewhat  unlike  those  of  the  French. 
They  were  usually  double  cabins,  that  is  to  say,  the  house 
was  composed  of  two  distinct  log  pens  or  rooms  with  an 
open  space  about  the  size  of  each  of  the  rooms  between 
them.  This  open  space  between  the  rooms  was  used  as 
a  sort  of  passage  way.  The  logs  in  the  walls  were  laid 
horizontally  upon  each  other  to  the  height  of  eight  or  ten 


^-t 


-A 


Conditions  in  Missouri  in  1803  '         43 

feet  instead  of  being  placed  on  end  as  in  the  French  houses. 

The  spaces  between  the  logs  were  filled  with  clay.     A  single 

roof  covered  the  two  rooms  and  the  open  space.     Sometimes 

it  was  extended  over  the  walls  of  the  rooms  so  as  to  form 

a  shed  or  porch  in  the  front  and  the  rear.    The  roof  was  made 

by  placing  logs  upon  rafters  and  fastening  them  down  by 

means  of  wooden  pins  and  notches  and  then  laying  clapboards 

four  or  five  feet  long  on  these  logs.     Since  the  clapboards 

were  not  nailed  to  the  logs,  they  were  held  in  place  by  having 

three  or  four  heavy  logs  laid  upon  them  and  fastened  down 

at  the  end  with  withes.     One  or   two  doors  were  cut  into         >y\-^  —y^y^ 

the  rooms  and  a  few  small  openings  left  for  light  and  air,    _._— ^    /p_    "—^ 

which  were  sometimes  gla^^^d:     TEeTToors  were  puncheons.         ^K^ ^    oy 

Each  room  had    a  broad  fire   place  made   either   of  wood    Viyvr^ 

and  clay  or  of  rock.     One  room    served  as  a  kitchen  and 

the  other  as  the  living  room.     In  case  the  family  owned 

slaves  another  room  or  pen  was  built   a  few   feet   back  of 

the  open  space  between  the  other  two  rooms,  and  this  was 

used  as  the  kitchen.   The  slaves  lived  in  separate  cabins  back 

of  the  house  of  their  master. 

Though  the  American  settlers  raised  a  good  deal  of 
corn  and  wheat  and  turned  out  a  good  many  cattle  on  the 
range,  they  spent  nmch  of  their  time  in  hunting  and  trading 
in  furs. 

They  were  far  from  being  as  cultured  and  as  reBnec 
as  the  French,  and  though  they  were  numerically  stronger -^^i 
than  the  French  by  1804,  their  isolation  had  prevented  them^  "^ 
from  taking  the  lead,  and  what  is  now  Missouri  was  French  J}^ 
in  character  when  the  United  States  acquired  it.  ir^'^ 

By  far  the  most  noted  and  the  most  picturesque  character       4^^  ^v*-^    .  .   ^ 
among  the  Americans  who  had  settled   in  what  is  now  Mis-         ^  XO-"^^^'^^ 
souri  prior  to  1804  was  Daniel  Boone.     He  was  descended     '^o"^'^'^ 
from  a  family  who  had   emigrated   from   England  to  Penn- 
sylvania in  1717.     Here  Daniel  was  boin  in  1732.     When 


L-1 


44  Chapters  in  Missouri  History 

he  was  eighteen  y»'fir.s  old  his  father  moveJ  his  large  family 
of  eleven  children'  to  western  North  Carolina  following 
rather  leisurely  one  of  the  valleys  of  the  Alleghany  Moun- 
tains which  ran  from  Pennsylvania  to  western  North  Caro- 
lina along  W'hich  numerous  other  (^migrants  were  also  travel- 
j  Ct^^'^"^^^  ^^^-  Here  Daniel  married  and  began  the  rearing  of  a 
^-^J^       family. 

It  was  not  long  however  until  game  began  to  get  scarce 
in  that  part  of  North  Carolina  owing  to  the  increasing  popu- 
lation, and  to  satisfy  his  own  mastering  passion  for  hunting 
and  his  desire  to  live  the  life  oi  a  front  iersn^n,  Boone  in 
company  with  several  others  began  in  1769  to  hunt  and 
explore  the  Kentucky  region.  After  several  years  of  ad- 
venture he  established  Boonesborough  in  1775.  It  was 
not  long  until  he  found  that  Kentucky  was  getting  "too 
crowded"  to  suit  him.  Moreover  he  lost  the  lands  that  he 
had  acquired  in  that  region  through  some  defect  of  title  which 
was  due  to  his  carelessness  in  failing  to  observe  the  legal 
forms  of  entry.  He  finally  migrated  to  Missouri  and  took 
up  his  abode  in  the  Femme  Osage  settlement  which  had 
been  established  two  years  previously  by  his  son,  Daniel 
Morgan  Boone,  near  the  Missouri  about  twenty  miles 
above  St.  Charles.  The  next  year  after  he  came,  Boone 
was  appointed  Syndic  of  the  settlement  b}^  Governor  De 
Lassus  and  for  four  years  he  served  in  this  capacity.  He 
was  not  learned  in  the  law  but  he  had  a  strong  sense  of 
justice,  and  through  the  fairness  of  his  decisions  won  at 
once  the  approbation  of  his  neighbors.  He  is  said  to  have 
resorted  to  methods  that  were  primitive  and  arbitrary;  he 
frequently  assessed  whipping  as  the  penalty  for  infractions 
of  law;  he  did  not  bother  himself  about  the  rules  of 
evidence  but  sought  to  get  at  the  facts  in  the  case  in  the 
mosc'  direct  method  possible. 

His  experiences  with  Kentucky  lands  were  repeated  in 
Mis.souri.     He  had  been  granted  10,000  acres  by  Governor 


Conditions  in  Missouri  in  1803  45 

DeLassus  in  return  for  bringing  in  one  hundred  and  fifty 
families  into  Upper  Louisiana  from  Vn-ginin  and  Kentucky, 
but  the  grant  was  never  confirmed  because  he  failed  to  get 
it  properly  certified.  Congress  however  later  granted  him 
1000  acres  as  a  mark  of  recognition  for  his  public  services. 

He  died  in  1820  at  the  home  of  his  son.  Nathan  Boone, 
three  miles  north  of  La  Charette  now  known  as  Marthas- 
ville  in  Warren  County,  where  he  had  spent  most  of  the 
time  in  his  last  years.  The  house  was  a  two  story  rock  house, 
the  first  of  its  kind  in  Missouri,  and  is  still  standing.  Here 
visitors  from  all  parts  of  the  country  came  to  see  him  and 
hear  from  him  the  story  of  the  pioneer's  life  in  the  new  west. 

His  body  was  moved  from  Missouri  to  Frankfort,  Ken- 
tucky, in  1845  but  his  grave  remained  unmarked  until  1880 
when  a  monument  was  erected  over  it. 

We  saw  in  the  first  part  of  this  chapter  that  Captain 
Amos  Stoddard  had  been  appointed  Governor  of  Upper 
Louisiana  at  the  time  the  transfer  was  made  in  March,  1804, 
He  served  in  this  capacity  until  October  of  that  year  when  an 
act  that  had  been  passed  by  Congress  went  into  effect.  By 
this  act,  Louisiana  Territory  was  divided  into  two  parts, 
the  thirty-third  parallel  being  the  dividing  line.  All  to 
the  south  of  that  line  was  called  the  Territory  of  Orleans; 
all  to  the  north  was  called  the  District  of  Louisiana  and  was 
attached  to  the  Territory  of  Indiana  for  adminstrative 
purposes.  Governor  William  Henry  Harrison,  who  later 
liecame  President,  was  Governor  of  Indiana  at  that  time  and 
thereupon  became  the  executive  of  the  District  of  Louisiana. 
The  legislature  of  the  district  was  according  to  the  act  of 
Congress,  to  be  composed  of  the  Governor  and  the  three 
Judges  of  Lidiana.  This  body  met  and  enacted  a  series  of, 
of  laws  which  constituted  the  first  body  of  laws  in  what  is 
now  Missouri  that  emanated  from  American  authority. 
Governor  Stoddard  had  made  no  changes  during  the  few 


46  Chapters  in  Missouri  History 

months  he  was  in  office.  He  had  retained  all  the  old  Spanish 
officials,  with  the  exception  of  Lieutenant  Governor  De 
Lassus,  and  left  them  to  continue  the  administration  of 
Spanish  laws  and  customs  while  he  confined  himself  to  the 
duty  of  maintaining  public  order. 

The  body  of  laws  issued  however  by  Governor  Harrison 
and  the  Judges  of  Indiana  for  the  District  of  l-iouisiana 
introduced  a  whole  series  of  innovations  in  the  way  of  legal 
methods  of  procedure  in  the  courts,  penalties  for  crimes  and 
other  infractions  of  law,  and  the  like.  It  put  an  end  to 
the  summary  way  which  the  Spanish  officials  had  had  of 
disposing  of  the  cases  that  came  before  them,  and  it  marked 
the  separation  of  the  administration  of  civil  and  military 
jurisdictions  of  the  commandants  of  the  various  posts.  No 
noticeable  change  was  made  however  in  the  boundaries  of 
the  five  districts.     They  remained  practically  as  before. 

It  was  not  long  however  until  wide  spread  dissatisfac- 
tion arose  among  both  the  Americans  and  the  French  settlers, 
and  a  petition  was  submitted  to  Congress  in  November, 
1804  asking  for  relief  from  the  intolerable  situation  that 
had  been  created  by  these  American  laws.  The  outcome 
of  this  agitation  we  shall  find  out  in  the  next  chapter. 

References  :  Houck,  .  Ilistory  of  Missouri,  should  be  consulted 
on  the  following  topics:  Growth  of  Settlements  from  1765  to  1804, 
Vol.  I,  Chapter  XI  and  Vol.  II,  Chapters  XII-XV  in  loco;  Govern- 
mental Organizations  under  the  Spanish  Regime,  II,  193-208;  Pioneer 
Life  prior  to  1803,  II,  231-86;  Governmental  Organization  in  1804 
376-418. 

On  the  Population  and  Extent  of  Settlement  in  Missouri  before 
1804,  see  an  article  by  Viles  in  Missouri  Historical  Review  for  July 
1911,  pp.  189-213. 

Thwaites  Daniel  Boone  is  the  best  life  of  Boone  available. 


L^-^ 


y,    i'^^ 


&--r^ 


CH^TER   IV. 

BURR  CONSPIRACY. 

[This  shoiiltl  follow  or  be  used  in  connection  with  a  study  of  the 
famous  Burr  Cwiispiracy.  James  &  Sanford,  251;  Muzzey,  212; 
Channing,  343;  Hart,  271;  Montgomery,  281;  Larned,  318;  Mc- 
Laughlin, 269.] 

The  famous  Burr  conspiracy  is  connected  with  Mis- 
souri history  in  only  an  incidental  way  through  one  General 
James  Wilkinson  who  for  the  space  of  nearly  two  years  v 
was  an  official  in  Upper  Louisiana. 

Congress  it  will  be  remembered  had  divided  the  Louisi- 
ana Territory  in  1804  into  two  districts;  all  south  of  the 
thirty-third  parallel  was  called  the  Territory  of  Orleans, 
and  all  north  the  District  of  Louisiana.  The  latter  division 
had  been  attached  to  the  Territory  of  Indiana  for  adniinis- 
trative  purposes,  hence  the  term  district  was  applied  to  it 
instead  of  territory. 

It  was  not  long  however  before  large  numbers  of  people 
in  what  is  now  Missouri  became  very  much  dissatisfied 
with  this  arrangement.  There  were  many  reasons  for  this 
dissatisfaction.  For  one  thing  they  did  not  like  having  the 
District  of  Louisiana  attached  to  the  Territory  of  Indiana. 
They  found  that  they  were  put  to  a  very  great  disadvantage 
when  they  had  need  of  appealing  for  assistance  to  the 
Governor  of  Indiana  who  lived  far  away  from  them  and 
who  could  be  reached  only  by  a  journey  of  many  miles 
through  an  entirely  uninhabited  country  which  lay  between 
the  settlements  in  the  Missouri  and  the  Indiana  countries, 
-j^oreover  they  disliked  the  provision  that  had  been  made 
^  in  the  act  looking  towards  the  ultimate  removal  of  Indians 
from  the  lands  east  of  the  Mississippi  to  those  to  the  west, 
(^»j\aiid  they  complained  that  the  right  of  self  government 
had  been  withheld  from  them.  But  in  all  probability  the 
strongest  reasons  for  all  this  dissatisfaction  on  the  part  of 

47J 


48  Chapters  in  Missouri  History 


the  people  wer^  rirst,  the  necessity  of  having  to  pay  taxes 
from  which  they  had  been  hirgely  reheved  under  the  Spanish 
regime;  ^)second,  the  duty  of  rendering  miUtary  service 
without  compensatioil^and  third,  the  failure  of  the  United 
States  government  to  make  adequate  provision  for  the 
settlement  of  the  disputes  concerning  the  Spanish  land 
titles. 

It  is  not  a  matter  of  surprise  to  us  to  find  therefore 
that  within  six  months  after  Upper  Louisiana  iiad  been 
occupied  by  the  United  States,  a  convention  of  delegates 
chosen  by  the  people  of  the  several  districts  of  Upper  Louisi- 
ana, or  the  District  of  Louisiana  as  it  was  then  called,  met 
in  St.  Louis  and  drafted  a  memorial  to  Congress  in  which 
they  set  forth  in  unmistakable  language  why  they  were 
dissatisfied  with  the  arrangements  that  had  been  made  by 
that  body  in  the  Act  of  1804.  They  asked  not  only  for  a 
repeal  of  that  act  but  the  for  passage  of  another  which  would 
give  them  among  other  things  a  Governor,  a  Secretary  and 
Judges  who  should  be  appointed  by  the  President  and  who 
should  live  in  the  district  and  hold  property  in  it,  and  which 
would  give  the  people  the  right  to  elect  two  representatives 
from  each  of  the  counties  who  with  the  Governor  should 
form  the  legislature  of  the  district.  It  is  a  matter  of  special 
interest  that  most  of  those  who  had  taken  an  active 
part  on  this  agitation  and  in  the  getting  up  of  this  conven- 
tion were  the  Americans  who  had  settled  in  what  is  now  Mis- 
souri during  the  period  of  Spanish  rule. 

Congress  responded  favorably  to  this  appeal,  and  by 
the  act  of  1805  Upper  Louisiana  or  the  District  of  Louisiana 
was  detached  from  Indiana  Territory  and  declared  to  be 
erected  into  a  separate  territory  under  the  name  of  the  Terri- 
tory of  Louisiana.  Under  this  act  General  James  Wilkin- 
son was  appointed  Governor  of  the  Territory.  He  served 
in  that  capacity  from  1805  to  1807.  It  was  while  Wilkin- 
son was  Governor  that  he  became  implicated  in  the  Burr 


BuBR  Conspiracy  49 

conspirac5^  thereby  connecting  Missouri  history  with  that 
famous  episode  in  American  history. 

Just  what  Burr  aimed  to  do  when  he  set  forth  upon  his 
journey  through  the  west  in  April,  1805,  immediately  after 
his  retirement  from  the  Vice-Presidency,  is  not  definitely 
known.  He  always  scouted  the  idea  of  seeking  to  dismember 
the  Union  by  getting  the  west  to  secede,  whenever  he  was 
accused  of  that  design,  but  he  did  admit  that  he  contem- 
plated a  revolt  against  Spain  in  Spanish  territory,  especially 
in  Mexico.  Perhaps  he  did  not  know  himself  what  he  was 
going  to  do  and  was  waiting  on  circumstances  to  determine 
what  his  course  would  be. 

On  his  way  to  New  Orleans  by  way  of  the  Ohio  and 
Mississippi  rivers,  Burr  met  General  Wilkinson  at  Fort 
Monroe  on  the  Ohio.  Wilkinson  was  not  only  Governor  of 
the  Territory  of  Louisiana  but  also  the  highest  military 
officer  of  the  United  States.  He  was  also  in  the  secret  pay 
of  the  Spanish  government.  After  conferring  with  Burr 
at  Fort  Monroe  he  returned  to  his  headquarters  at  St.  Louis 
where  he  tried  to  corrupt  his  subordinates  and  draw  them 
away  from  their  allegiance  to  their  country.  In  this  he 
failed  so  that  when  Burr  came  to  St.  Louis  after  having 
visited  New  Orleans  he  found  that  Wilkinson  was  less  en- 
thusiastic over  his  schemes  than  formerly.  Burr  then  re- 
turned to  Washington  with  seemingly  nothing  done. 

He  came  back  again  into  the  west  in  August,  ]8()G, 
but  failed  again  to  get  things  going.  Wilkinson  now  realiz- 
ing that  Burr  was  going  to  fail,  decided  to  get  himself  under 
cover  by  playing  the  part  of  a  traitor  towards  him.  He 
therefore  wrote  President  Jefferson  about  Burr's  plans  and 
made  preparations  to  thwart  them.  In  a  short  time  Burr's 
schemes  collapsed.  He  was  tried  in  1807  with  Wilkinson 
as  the  chief  witness  against  him  but  was  acquitted.  In 
1811  Wilkinson  was  also  tried  on  similar  charges  but  was 
likewise  acquitted.     He  was  able  in  this  trial  to  point  to 


50  Chapters  in  Missouri  History 

two  things  as  sufficient  grounds  for  acquittal.  First,  he  had 
written  in  October,  1804,  a  letter  to  Robert  Smith,  Secretary 
of  the  Navy  under  Jefferson,  that  Burr  was  al^out  some- 
thinj;-  and  that  an  eye  ought  to  be  kept  on  him.  It  will 
be  seen,  however,  that  this  letter  antedated  the  trips  that 
Burr  had  taken  to  the  west.  Second,  he  had  been  the  most 
important  agent  in  thwarting  Burr's  schemes  after  they 
had  gotten  under  way.^ 

Meanwhile  Wilkinson  had  been  dismissed  by  President 
Jefferson  from  the  Governorship  of  the  Territory  of  Louisi- 
ana, and  his  place  had  been  filled  by  Meriwether  Lewis  of 
the  Lewis  and  Clark  expedition.  These  changes  had 
taken  place  in  1807.  Wilkinson  had  during  his  two  years  of 
office  incurred  the  hostility  of  practically  everybody  in  the 
Territory  of  Louisiana.  That  hostility  was  not  due  how- 
ever to  the  part  he  had  played  in  the  Burr  episode  but  to 
the  way  he  had  conducted  matters  while  he  was  Governor. 

1.  It  should  be  recalled  here  that  Wilkinson  had  been  prominently 
connected  with  the  Spanish  intrigues  of  the  early  nineties  of  the  eigh- 
teenth century,  the  outlines  of  which  belong  to  American  history  rather 
than  Missouri  history. 

References: — For  further  reading  consult  Houck,  History  of 
Missouri,   II,   399-418;  also    Roosevelt,    Winning  oj    the    West,   IV, 


^-^^ 


CHAPTER   V. 

INDIAN  TROUBLES  DURING  THE  WAR  OF  1812. 

[This  chapter  should  be  used  after  a  study  has  been  made  of  the 
War  of  1812  or  in  connection  with  it.  James  &  Sanford,  265;  Muzzey, 
224;  Channing,  359;  Hart,  279;  Montgomery,  303;  Larned,  346; 
McLaughlin,  286.  The  chief  purpose  of  the  chapter  is  to  show  the 
effects  of  these  Indian  troubles  in  retarding  immigi-ation  to  Missouri 
and  the  opening  up  of.ihejnteriorJ . . — ■ 

During  the  war  of  1812  the  settlers  in  Avhat  is  now  Mis- 
souri were  troubled  considerably  by  Indian  attacks,  many 
of  which  were  inspired  by  the  British  with  whom  the  Amer- 
icans were  at  war.  In  fact  the  Indians  Hving  east  of  the 
Mississippi  were  in  active  alliance  with  the  British,  and  had 
the  Indians  living  west  of  the  Mississippi  joined  with  the 
eastern  Indians  in  a  united  attack  upon  the  Missouri  settlers, 
the  crisis  would  have  been  much  more  serious  than  it  actually 
was.  In  order  that  this  crisis  may  be  understood  something 
needs  to  be  said  concerning  the  Indians  who  were  living  in 
what  is  now  Missouri  when  the  war  of  1812  broke  out. 

At  that  time  there  were  several  Indian  tribes  living 
within  the  boundaries  of  what  is  now  Missouri.  Among 
them  the  most  important  were  the  Osages,  the  Sacs  and 
Foxes,  the  Missouris,  and  the  Shawnees  and  Delawares. 
The  Osages,  seemed  to  be  the  most  numerous,  there  being 
about  eight  thousand  of  them  here  in  1819.  They  lived 
south  of  the  Missouri  river,  chiefly  along  the  Osage, 
a  tributary  of  the  Missouri.  They  were  noted  for  their 
athletic  physique,  their  sobriety  and  their  warlike  dis- 
position. They  were  feared  by  l)oth  Indians  and  whites. 
As  a  means  of  protection  against  them,  the  Spanish 
govermnent  had  authorized,  as  we  saw  in  a  former  chapter,^ 
Lorimier  to  bring  in  a  band  of  Shawnees  and  Delawares  and 
settle  them  on  Apple  Creek  and  other  small  tributaries  of 
the  Missouri  near  Cape  Girardeau  in  the  latter  part  of  the 


.  1.  See  page  31. 


52  Chapters  in  Missouri  History 

eighteenth  century.  They  liowever  did  not  render  the 
protection  that  hud  been  expected  and  the  Osages  continued 
to  trouble  the  whites  as  before.  B}^  1812  the  Shawnees 
and  Delawares  were  to  be  found  along  the  Whitewater  River 
as  well  as  along  the  Misisssippi. 

North  of  the  Missouri  river  were  the  Sacs  and  P'oxes 
and  the  Missouris.  The  Missouris  were  located  near  the 
mouth  of  the  Grand  River,  a  tributary  of  the  Missouri. 
They  were  later  dispersed  by  the  Sacs  and  Foxes  who  held 
the  territory  between  the  Missouri  and  the  Mississippi  as 
far  north  as  the  headwaters  of  the  Des  Moines  and  the 
Iowa  rivers.  It  is  customary  to  speak  of  the  Sacs  and  Foxes 
together  because  of  the  thorough  and  complete  consolida- 
tion of  these  tribes. 

By  the  time  the  war  of  1812  began  the  population  of  what 
is  now  Missouri  had  grown  to  be  about  20,000,  having  doubled 
since  the  purchase  of  Louisiana  from  France  in  1803.  But 
the  area  of  settlement  had  not  been  extended  very  much. 
For  the  most  part  the  new  comers  during  the  interval  between 
the  purchase  of  Louisiana  and  the  breaking  out  of  the  war 
of  1812,  had  settled  in  the  territory  that  had  already  been 
occupied,  that  is  along  the  Mississippi  and  the  Missouri  from 
New  Madrid  up  to  St.  Charles,  or  had  pushed  out  to  the 
west  from  this  region  only  a  few  miles.  A  few  men  however 
had  undertaken  to  establish  themselves  in  isolated  places 
further  up  the  Mississippi  and  the  Missouri.  Some  had  gone 
up  the  Mississippi  to  Cuivre  River  in  what  is  now  Lincoln 
County,  and  others  had  gone  as  far  north  as  Hannibal. 
On  the  Missouri  a  few  men  attempted  to  establish  themselves 
near  the  mouths  of  the  Gasconade  and  Osage  rivers,  and  in 
a  region  still  further  up  called  Boon's  Lick  Country.  The 
name  Boon's  Lick  was  applied  to  the  territory  in  and  around 
the  present  Howard  County.  It  arose  from  the  fact  that 
two  sons  of  Daniel  Boone  had  made  salt  at  a  salt  spring  or 
lick  in  what  is  now  Howard  County  in  1807  and  had  brought 


Indian  Troubles  During  the  War  of  1812         53 

back  to  their  friends  in  the  older  settlements  an  account  of 
the  fine  agricultural  country  in  that  vicinity.  The  first 
effort  to  establish  a  settlement  in  this  country  was  made 
by  Benjamin  Cooper  in  1808.  He  was  compelled  however 
to  abandon  the  effort  for  the  time  being,  because  the  right 
to  the  territory  had  not  been  acquired  from  the  Indians 
at  that  time.  By  1812  there  were  several  hundred  settlers 
in  the  Boon's  Lick  country.  During  the  war,  however, 
immigration  to  this  region  was  completely  stopped  because 
of  the  ^pdian  hostilities,  and  many  of  the  settlers  abandoned 
their  claims  and  returned  to  their  places  down  the  river. 

But  the  greatest  danger  was  along  the  Mississippi 
river.  It  came  from  the  Indians  living  east  of  the  Mississippi 
who  had  been  stirred  up  by  English  agents.  In  fact  it 
seemed  that  these  agents  had  been  active  in  stirring  up  the 
Indians  even  before  the  war  broke  out.  Roving  bands  of 
savages  who  had  been  furnished  with  arms  by  these  English 
agents  had  crossed  the  Mississippi  and  engaged  in  horse- 
stealing and  other  marauding.  After  the  war  was  declared 
the  Sacs  and  Foxes  who  lived  along  the  Rock  River  in  Illinois 
were  induced  to  make  war  against  the  settlers  in  what  is 
now  Missouri,  and  all  through  the  war  they  proved  the  most 
troublesome  of  all  the  Indians  engaged  in  it. 

The  situation  called  forth  energetic  efforts  on  the  part 
of  the  territorial  governor  of  Missouri.  The  militia  was 
ordered  out,  and  forts  and  stations  were  established  and 
garrisoned.  Patrols  were  placed  along  the  Mississippi  and 
Missouri  rivers  and  the  more  exposed  districts.  Fortu- 
nately for  the  white  settlers  in  what  is  now  Missouri  the 
English  had  not  been  able  to  enlist  the  Indians  west  of  the 
Mississippi  and  thus  the  dangers  to  the  settlers  throughout 
the  territory  was  considerably  reduced.  If  the  Indians 
east  and  west  of  the  Mississippi  had  joined  in  a  combined 
attack,  all  the  frontier  settlements  would  have  been  wiped 


54  Chapters  in  Missouri  History 

out  and  great  loss  would  also  have  been  inflicted  on  the 
older  settlements. 

A  volunteer  militia  force  of  about  1400  men  was  sent 
up  the  Mississippi  under  General  Howard  in  September, 
1813,  to  attack  the  Illinois  Sacs  and  Foxes  who  were  giving 
the  most  trouble.  He  was  unable  to  bring  them  into  open 
battle,  but  he  was  able  to  burn  several  of  their  villages  and 
destroy  many  of  their  stores  of  corn.  This  put  a  check  upon 
their  attacks. 

At  no  time  during  the  war  did  the  Indians  come  in  great 
numbers.  They  always  came  in  small  roving  bands  and 
slipped  up  on  unsuspecting  settlers  in  their  homes.  As 
the  militia  was  not  always  around  when  most  needed  to 
ward  off  an  attack  by  one  of  these  bands,  the  settlers  were 
compelled  to  build  forts  and  thus  protect  themselves.  This 
was  particularly  true  in  the  more  remote  settlements.  Some 
of  these  forts  were  built  near  what  is  now  Hannibal  and  in 
what  is  now  St.  Charles,  Lincoln,  Howard  and  Cole  counties. 

These  forts  were  as  a  usual  thing  simply  strong  log  houses 
with  a  projecting  upper  story  and  with  loopholes  through 
which  the  muskets  and  rifles  of  those  inside  were  fired.  In 
the  large  settlements  the  fort  was  a  stockade  which  enclosed 
several  cabins  -or  houses.  Into  these  forts  the  settlers 
would  flee  when  they  heard  of  an  Indian  attack  and  remain 
until  the  enemy  had  departed.  It  was  not  often  that  the 
Indians  undertook  to  take  a  fort  and  when  they  did  they 
generally  failed.  They  usually  plundered  the  abandoned 
cabins  and  drove  ofi^  the  horses.  The  settlers  who  were 
killed  during  these  raids  were  either  unable  to  get  into  the 
forts  in  time  or  took  risks  in  pursuing  the  Indians.  During 
the  war  the  settlers  in  the  Boon's  Lick  country  had  so  many 
horses  stolen  from  them  by  the  Indians  that  they  had  to 
plow  their  corn  with  oxen  and  even  milch  cows  for  two  or 
three  years  after  the  war  was  over. 

After  two  years  of  this  sort  of  warfare  which  left  the 


Indian  Troubles  During  the  War  of  1812         55 

settlers  in  an  almost  continuous  state  of  anxiety  and  fear, 

peace  was  finally  made  between  the  Indians  and  whites  in 

June,  1815.     At  that  time  there  were  1200  or  1500  Indian 

warriors  along   Rock   River  and   Des   Moines   River  that 

were  yet  on  the  war  path,  and  it  has  been  asserted  that  they 

were  yet  being  secretly  urged   by  the  English  agents  to 

continue  their  depredations  notwithstanding  the  fact  that 

peace  between  the  United  States  and  England  had  been 

agreed  upon  in  December,  1814.     However  that  may  have 

been,  peace  with  the  Indians  was  secured   at  a  conference 

held  at  Portage  des  Sioux  in  the  St.  Charles  District  in 

June,  1815.     At  this  conference  former  treaties  which  had 

been  made  with  different  tribes  regarding  the   cession  of 

Indian  lands  were  ratified.     One  of  them  had  been  made 

with  the  Sacs  and  Foxes  in  1804,  according  to  which  they 

had  ceded  among  other  lands  the  territory  bounded  by  the 

Missouri  and  the  Mississippi  and  a  line  drawn  from  the 

mouth  of  the  Gasconade  river  to  the  river  Jeffron  or  Salt 

river,  thirty  miles  above  its  mouth,  and    then  down  that 

river  to  its  junction  with  the   Mississippi.     It  was  later 

claimed  by  the  Sacs  and  Foxes  that  this  treaty  had  been 

made  by  their  chiefs  without  authority,  and  this  was  oiie  of 

the  chief  causes  for  the  ill  feeling  that  existed  between  these 

tribes  and  the  Americans  during  the  war  of   1812.     The  ^, 

treaty  of  1804  however  was  ratified  at  the  close  of  the  war.     o'^ 

Later,  that  is  in  1823,  the  Sacs  and  Foxes  completed  their  ^^ 

cessions  of  territory  in  Missouri.  Ly)^-^         Ly^^ 

Another  treaty  which  was  ratified  in  1815  was  the  one  'X/-'*^^^''^ 

made  in  1808  with  the  Osages.     By  this  treaty  they  had  /v*^      '^(^jr-^'^'^ 
agreed  to  code  to  the  United  States  all  their  land  bounded    fl_J'-'^^ 

id  a  line  running  from  -^a  \u^^''^''^^^^'X' 
Fort  Osage  on  the  Missouri  to  the  Arkansas  river  and  thence       j.        ^/^  \i>^ 
down  to  the  Mississippi.     They  also  ceded  by  this  treaty  i<^Vt  %/'-'^      a 


by  the  Missouri  and  Mississippi  and  a  line  running  from  ■^  r,  .o^^'^^x" 

Fort  Osage  on  the  Missouri  to  the  Arkj 

down  to  the  Mississippi.     They  also 

whatever  claims  they  had  to  territory  north  of  the  Missouri  aX*'^        ^ 

river.     By  a  subsequent  treaty  made  in  1825  the  Osages  gave    u -e^  >, 


56  Chapters  in  Missouri^History 

up  thoir  right  to  the  lands  they  yet  claimed  in  the  western 
part  of  the  state.  At  that  time  the  Kansas  Indians  also 
ceded  whatever  lands  they  claimed  in  Missouri.  Other 
cessions  were  made  later  by  other  Indians  such  as  the  Kick- 
apoos,  Shawnees  and  Delawares,  so  that  by  1833  the  title  of 
Indians  to  lands  in  Missouri  was   completely   extinguished. 

References: — Houck,  History  of  Missouri,  I,  168-2.36;  III,  98-139. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

ADMISSION  OF  MISSOURI. 

[This  chapter  should  be  used  after  a  study  has  baen  made  of  the 
Missouri  Compromise.  James  and  Sanford,  283;  Muzzey,  313;  Channing, 
385;  Hart,  301;  Montgomery,  319;  Larned,  374;  McLaughhn,  307.] 

We  have  seen  in  a  former  chapter  that  the  territory 
purchased  by  the  United  States  from  France  in  1803  was  put 
at  once  under  territorial  organization.  All  that  part  north 
of  the  thirty-third  parallel  was  designated  the  District  of 
Louisiana  and  was  attached  to  the  territory  of  Indiana. 
There  was  great  dissatisfaction  with  this  arrangement  from 
the  very  start,  and  a  convention  was  held  in  St.  Louis  in 
September  of  1804  to  protest  against  it.  Congress  heeded 
this  protest  by  enacting  a  law  in  1805  whereby  the  Dis- 
trict of  Louisiana  was  converted  into  the  Territory  of  Louis- 
iana and  given  a  territorial  organization  of  the  first  or  lowest 
rank.  The  government  of  the  territory  was  vested  in  a 
Governor,  a  Secretary  and  three  Judges,  all  of  whom  were 
appointed  by  the  President.  The  Governor  and  the  Judges 
were  constituted  a  legislature  for  the  territory  and  were 
authorized  to  establish  inferior  courts,  lay  out  new  districts 
when  needed,  and  make  any  necessary  laws. 

In  1812  Congress  enacted  another  law  changing  the 
name  of  the  Territory  from  that  of  Louisiana  to  Missouri, 
and  making  certain  alterations  in  its  governmental  organiza- 
tion thereby  raising  the  territory  to  one  of  the  second  rank. 
Under  the  new  government  the  Legislature  consisted  of  the 
Governor,  Legislative  Council,  and  a  House  of  Representa- 
tives. Its  meetings  were  held  annually  in  St.  Louis.  The 
Legislative  Council  was  composed  of  nine  men  selected 
by  the  President  out  of  eighteen  nominated  by  the  House  of 
Representatives  of  the  Territory,  for  a  term  of  five  years. 
The  House  of  Representatives  was  composed  of  members 
elected  for  two  years.     The  Governor  and  the  Judges  were 

57 


58  Chapters  in  Missouri  History 

appointed  by  the  President  as  had  formerly  been  the  case. 
Up  to  this  time  the  people  of  the  Territory  had  had  no  re- 
presentative in  Congress;  now  they  were  authorized  to  elect 
a  Delegate  to  Congress  who  could  speak  but  not  vote  in 
that  body.  Edward  Hempstead  was  the  first  delegate 
elected. 

In  1816  Congress  made  still  further  changes  in  the  gov- 
ernmental organization  of  the  Territory,  thereby  raising  it 
from  the  second  to  the  third  or  highest  rank  of  territories. 
The  people  were  now  given  the  right  to  elect  the  members 
of  the  Legislative  council,  one  member  for  each  county,  and 
biennial  instead  of  annual  meetings  of  the  Legislature  were 
provided  for.  No  further  changes  were  made  in  the  terri- 
torial government  of  Missouri  prior  to  the  organization  of 
the  state  government  in  1820. 

Meanwhile  some  chaiiges  in  the  county  organization 
had  been  going  on  since  1803  that  should  be  noted.  The 
Spanish  Government  had  previously  divided  the  upper  por- 
tion of  the  colony  of  Louisiana  into  five  districts,  St.  Charles, 
St.  Louis,  Ste.  Genevieve,  Cape  Girardeau  and  New  Madrid, 
and  for  a  few  years  after  the  purchase  of  Louisiana  no  change 
had  been  made  in  them  by  the  United  States  government. 
But  in  1812  the  term  district  was  dropped  and  that  of  county 
substituted,  and  by  the  time  Missouri  was  admitted  into  the 
Union,  twenty  new  counties  had  been  created,  eight  having 
been  created  in  1818,  and  ten  in  1820.^ 

1.  The  first  county  created  after  the  purchase  of  Louisiana  was 
Washington  County.  This  was  done  in  1812  by  cutting  off  that  part' 
of  St.  Genevieve  County  around  Mine  a  Breton  which  was  thereafter 
called  Potosi.  In  1813  what  is  now  the  state  of  .\rkansas  was  erected 
into  Arkansas  County.  Up  to  that  time  this  region  was  nominally 
a  part  of  New  Madrid  County.  In  1815  Lawrence  County  was  created 
out  of  New  Madrid  County.  In  1816  all  north  of  the  Osage  River 
was  erected  into  Howard  County.  This  included  parts  of  St.  Louis 
and  St.  Charles  Counties.  Because  of  the  fact  that  thirty-one  counties 
were  later  carved  out  of  the  original  Howard  County,  she  has  borne 
the  name  of  Mother  of  Counties.  In  1818  Lawrence  County  was  abol- 
ished and  eight  new  counties  were  erected  as  follows:  Wayne  out  of 
Cape  Girardeau  and  Lawrence;  Franklin  out  of  St.  Louis;  Pike,  Mont- 


Admission  of  Missouri  59 

This  increase  in  the  number  of  counties  had  been  due 
to  the  growth  of  the  population,  especially  since  1815.  The 
population  in  1810  was  20,845,  nearly  doubling  that  in  1803, 
but  by  1812  this  steady  increase  was  suddenly  checked  by 
the  war  that  broke  out  in  that  year.  With  its  close  in  1815 
people  once  more  began  to  move  west,  and  in  1820  the  census 
showed  there  were  66,557  in  Missouri. 

Now  the  newcomers  up  to  1810  had  found  homes  for 
themselves  for  the  most  part  in  those  portions  of  the  terri- 
tory where  the  early  settlements  had  been  made.  But  after 
1815  they  pushed  out  beyond  the  old  frontier  in  large  num- 
bers and  established  settlements  further  up  the  Missouri 
and  the  Mississippi,  and  along  the  Meramec  and  the  St. 
Francois.  The  increase  of  population  in  the  older  regions  of 
settlement  made  it  necessary  to  divide  the  large  old  counties 
along  the  Misissippi  into  smaller  ones,  and  the  moving  of 
people  into  the  remoter  parts  made  the  creation  of  new  coun- 
ties there  necessary.  Therefore,  at  the  time  of  the  admis- 
sion of  Missouri  into  the  Union,  the  twenty  five  counties  of 
the  state  were  strung  along  the  Mississippi  and  the  Mis- 
souri in  the  shape  of  a  rough  T:  a  double  tier  of  counties 
had  been  formed  along  the  Missisippi  and  a  row  of  counties 
had  been  established  along  each  side  of  the  Missouri  up  to 
what  is  now  Kansas  City. 

In  view  of  the  rapid  increase  of  the  population  of  what  is 
now  Missouri,  it  is  not  surprising  to  us  to  find  out  that 
agitation  was  begun  very  shortly  after  1815  in  favor  of  state- 

gomery  and  Lincoln  out  of  St.  Charles;  Jefferson  out  of  St.  Louis  and 
Ste.  Genevieve;  Madison 'out  of  St.  Genevieve  and  Cape  Girardeau; 
Cooper  out  of  Howard.  (In  addition  Arkansas  County  was  divided 
up  into  three  counties,  Pulaski,  Clark  and  Hempstead).  In  LS2()  Calla- 
way, Boone,  Chariton,  and  Ray  were  created  out  of  Howard;  Lillard, 
Saline  and  Col(>  out  of  Cooper;  Gasconade  out  of  Franklin;  Dallas  out 
of  Pike;  and  Perry  out  of  Ste.  Genevieve.  Meanwhile  the  'IVrritory  of 
Arkansas  was  organized  in  LSIO  by  cutting  off  that  j)ortion  of  the  Mis- 
souri Territory  that  comprises  the  present  Arkansas  and  Oklahoma. 


60  Chapters  in  Missouri  History 

hood.  As  we  have  already  seen  the  majority  of  the  people 
living  in  what  is  now  Missouri  at  the  time  of  the  Louisiana 
purchase  were  Americans.  Moreover  practically  all  the 
settlers  between  1803  and  1820  were  Americans,  and  there- 
fore all  through  the  territorial  period  it  was  perfectly  natural 
that  they  should  have  desired  a  voice  in  national  affairs. 
Moreover  they  had  found  things  in  the  territorial  govern- 
ment that  were  unsatisfactory.  Because  relief  from  these 
conditions  could  only  be  found  in  statehood,  efforts  were 
soon  made  towards  that  end. 

As  early  as  1816  a  petition  was  circulated  among  the 
citizens  of  the  territory  of  Missouri  asking  Congress  to  admit 
her  as  a  state  into  the  Union.  What  became  of  this  petition 
is  not  known.  In  1818  two  different  petitions  which  had 
been  signed  by  private  citizens  and  a  formal  one  which  had 
been  passed  by  the  territorial  legislature  were  submitted  to 
Congress. 

The  only  difference  between  these  petitions  was  the 
boundary  lines  proposed  for  the  new  state.  In  the  first  of 
the  petitions  presented  by  the  private  citizens  it  was  prayed 
that  the  boundaries  should  be  36°  30'  on  the  south  and  40° 
on  the  north,  and  the  Mississippi  on  the  east,  and  on  the  west 
a  line  running  north  and  south  through  a  point  on  the  Mis- 
souri River  about  twenty  miles  east  of  the  mouth  of  the 
Kansas  River.  In  the  second  of  these  memorials  from  private 
citizens,  it  was  proposed  that  the  state  should  extend  from,  the 
Missouri  River  on  the  north  to  a  line  somewhat  farther  south 
of  the  present  southern  boundary,  and  from  the  Mississippi 
River  to  a  line  much  farther  west  than  the  present  western 
boundary.  In  the  petition  passed  by  the  territorial  legisla- 
ture, it  was  asked  that  the  boundary  should  be  as  follows: 
Beginning  at  a  point  in  the  middle  of  the  main  channel  of 
the  Mississippi  at  36°  north  latitude  and  running  in  a 
direct  line  to  the  mouth  of  the  Black,  a  branch  of  the 
White  River;  thence  up  the  White  River  to  a  point  where 


Admission  of  Missouri  01 

the  parallel  of  36°  30'  north  latitude  crosses;  thence  west 
along  this  parallel  to  a  point  from  which  a  line  running  due 
north  will  cross  the  Missouri  River  at  the  mouth  of  the  Wolf 
River;  and  thence  due  north  along  that  line  to  a  point  due 
west  from  the  mouth  of  the  Rock  River,  a  branch  of  the 
Mississippi;  thence  due  east  on  that  line  to  the  Mississippi 
thence  down  the  Mississippi  to  the  place  of  beginning. 
If  this  boundary  had  been  adopted  by  Congress,  Missouri 
would  now  include  three  tiers  of  Iowa  counties,  two  tiers  of 
Kansas  counties,  ten  counties  in  northeastern  Arkansas,  and 
one  or  two  counties  in  northeastern  Oklahoma.^ 

The  boundary  line  that  was  fixed  by  Congress  followed 
the  proposals  of  no  one  of  these  petitions.  Instead  it  was 
enacted  that  the  boundary  line  should  begin  at  the  Miss- 
issippi River  where  the  parallel  of  36°  north  latitude  crosses 
it  and  thence  west  along  that  parallel  to  the  St.  Francois 
River ;  thence  north  along  that  river  to  36°  30' ;  thence  along 
that  parallel  west  to  a  line  running  due  north  to  the  mouth 
of  the  Kansas  River;  thence  due  north  along  that  same 
line  to  the  parallel  intersecting  the  rapids  of  the  Des  Moines 
River;  thence  east  along  that  same  parallel  to  the  Des  Moines 
River;  thence  down  that  river  to  the  Mississippi;  and  thence 
down  the  Mississippi  to  the  place  of  beginning. 

According  to  traditions,  the  little  panhandle  district 
in  southeast  Missouri  was  included  in  the  boundaries  of  the 
state  because  of  the  activities  of  a  Mr.  J.  Hardeman  Walker 
who  lived  on  a  plantation  near  Little  Prairie,  now  Caruthers- 
ville.  If  the  southern  boundary  line  had  been  fixed  at  36° 
30'  along  its  entire  course,  that  section  of  the  country  in 
which  he  was  interested  would  have  been  left  out  of  the 
new  state.  He  is  credited  with  working  up  the  matter  in 
some  way  so  that  the  territory  lying  between  the  Mississippi 
and  the  St.  Francois  Rivers  should  be  included  as  far  south 
as  the  36th  parallel. 

1.  For  maps  showing  the  boundaries  proposed  in  two  of  these  {peti- 
tions, sec  HoucK,  History  of  Missouri,  1,  '6  and  5. 


62  Chaptehs  in  Missouri  History 

In  this  connection  it  should  be  noted  that  in  1836  the 
boundaries  of  the  state  were  enlarged  on  the  northwest  by 
the  addition  of  what  has  been' called  the  Platte  Purchase, 
and  that  Missouri  had  several  boundary  disputes  with  neigh- 
boring states,  such  as  Kentucky,  Kansas  and  Iowa,  some  of 
which  were  very  troublesome  and  long  drawn  out. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  review  here  the  debate  that  went 
on  in  Congress  for  two  sessions  over  the  question  of  the 
admission  of  Missouri  into  the  Union.  It  will  be  sufficient 
to  remind  ourselves  of  the  compromise  that  was  reached  in 
1820  to  the  effect  that  Missouri  should  be  admitted  as  a 
slave  state  but  that  the  remainder  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase 
north  of  36°  30'  should  always  be  free. 

During  the  interval  between  the  two  sessions  of  Con- 
gress which  had  this  question  under  consideration,  the  whole 
country  was  agitated  greatly  over  the  matter,  and  debates 
which  clearly  revealed  the  growing  antagonism  between  the 
north  and  the  south  were  held  everywhere.  As  was  natural 
the  feeling  in  Missouri  was  very  intense.  Lines  were  drawn 
very  sharply  between  those  who  favored  slavery  and  those 
who  believed  it  should  be  restricted.  Those  who  had  l)een 
disappointed  by  the  failure  of  Congress  to  act  immediately 
upon  the  petition  of  Missouri  for  admission,  expressed  their 
views  in  indignation  meetings  in  several  of  the  counties.  A 
meeting  held  in  Montgomery  county  on  April  28,  1819  de- 
clared that  "the  restriction  attempted  to  be  imposed  upon 
the  people  of  this  territory,  as  a  condition  of  their  admission 
into  the  Union,  is  a  daring  stretch  of  power,  an  usurpation 
of  our  sacred  rights,  unprecedented,  unconstitutional,  and 
in  open  violation  of  the  third  article  of  the  treaty  of  cession 
entered  into  with  France".  Similar  resolutions  were  passed 
by  mass  meetings  in  Howard,  Washington  and  New  Madrid 
counties  before  Congress  met  again  in  the  fall  of  1819. 

In  addition  to  these  popular  expressions,   there  were 


Admission  of  Missouri  63 

semi-official  expressions  from  grand  juries  in  several  counties. 
The  grand  jury  of  St.  Charles  County  declared  that  the 
"attempts  to  restrict  us  in  the  free  exercise  of  rights  in  the 
formation  of  the  constitution  and  form  of  state  government 
for  ourselves,  is  an  unconstitutional  and  unwarrantable 
usurpation  of  power  over  our  inalienable  rights  and  privileges 
as  a  free  people".  Similar  resolutions  were  passed  by  juries 
in  Jefferson,  St.  Louis  and  Washington  counties. 

Moreover  the  newspapers  of  Missouri  contained  edi- 
torial comments  that  reflected  the  sentiment  of  the  people, 
varying  of  course  with  the  point  of  view.  The  Missouri 
Intelligencer,  published  at  Franklin,  declared  that  the  failure 
of  the  Missouri  Bill  was  due  to  the  jealousy  of  the  east  over 
the  development  of  the  west.  The  St.  Louis  Enquirer  said 
that  the  matter  was  simply  and  nakedly  a  question  of  state 
sovereignty,  an  experiment  on  the  part  of  Congress  to  com- 
mence the  business  of  making  constitutions  for  the  states. 
Articles  appeared  in  the  St.  Louis  Gazette  condemning  the 
attitude  of  Congress  and  the  stand  taken  by  those  who 
opposed  the  admission  of  Missouri.  Some  of  the  bitterest 
articles  to  be  found  in  the  Enquirer  appeared  after  the  bill 
had  been  passed  but  before  the  news  had  arrived  to  that 
effect. 

The  agitation  even  involved  religious  bodies.  While 
the  debate  was  still  going  on  in  Congress,  the  Baptist  Asso- 
ciation of  Mt.  Zion  in  Howard  County,  sent  a  protest  to 
Congress  against  any  interference  with  the  contemplated 
constitution  and  against  any  restriction  on  the  rights  of 
property.  In  the  town  of  Franklin,  Howard  County,  Hum- 
phrey Smith  was  mobbed  because  he  had  the  temerity  to 
ask  how  a  member  of  the  Methodist  church  could  hold  negro 
slaves,  and  he  was  afterwards  indicted  by  the  grand  jury  of 
that  county  for  provoking  the  mob  that  had  attacked  him. 

When  the  news  finally  reached  Missouri  that  a  com- 
promise had  been  agreed  upon  in  Congress  whereby  the  state 


64  Chapters  in  Missouri  History 

would  bo  allowed  to  come  inti)  the  Union  without  any  restric- 
tions ui)on  her  as  regards  slavery,  despair  gave  way  to  exulta- 
tion. Missourians  spoke  of  the  southern  Congressmen  as  "  A 
band  of  Spartans  standing  united  in  the  pass  of  Thermopylae, 
defending  the  people  of  Missouri,  the  treaty  of  cession,  .and 
the  constitution  of  the  Republic. "  To  the  honor  of  northern 
congressmen  who  had  voted  with  the  southerners,  it  was 
suggested  that  there  should  be  erected  "an  unperishable 
monument  of  everlasting  fame. "  Throughout  the  state 
celebrations  were  held  in  honor  of  the  passage  of  the  bill. 
The  town  of  Jackson  in  Cape  Girardeau  county  seems  to 
have  been  the  first  place  in  the  state  to  get  the  news.  It 
was  brought  there  by  Thomas  Hempstead  while  on  his  way 
to  St.  Louis.  When  the  news  reached  the  latter  place  there 
was  an  illumination  in  honor  of  the  event,  and  the  names  of 
the  northern  congressmen  who  had  aided  in  the  passage  of 
the  bill  were  exhibited  in  transparencies.  The  name  of 
Senator  Lanman,  of  Connecticut  who  had  been  burned  in 
effigy  in  Hartford  for  his  attitude  on  the  question,  was  very 
conspicuous  in  these  transparencies.  A  big  dinner  was 
given  in  Franklin  to  celebrate  the  ''late  triumph  over  east- 
ern policy  and  eastern  artifice." 

Now  that  Congress  had  granted  the  petition  of  the 
Missourians  for  admission,  the  next  step  was  the  drafting  of  a 
state  constitution.  The  election  of  delegates  to  the  con- 
vention that  was  to  draw  up  this  constitution  was  held  early 
in  May,  1820.  There  were  two  tickets  in  the  field,  one  fav- 
oring slavery,  the  other  opposing  it.  But  of  the  forty  one 
members  elected,  not  one  was  an  antislavery  man.  Thirty 
seven  had  been  born  in  slaveholding  states,  two  in  free 
states  and  two  in  foreign  countries.  In  this  connection  it  might 
be  well  to  state  that  during  the  consideration  of  the  Missouri 
bill  in  ('ongress,  the  antislavery  men  in  the  territory  had 
been  as  bitter  as  the  proslavery  men  in  their  denunciation 


Admission  of  Missouri  65 

of  Congress  for  delaying  her  admission.  Thej''  claimed  that 
Congress  had  no  right  to  prescribe  the  terms  of  her  admission 
into  the  union  as  a  state.  Notwithstanding  this  position 
that  had  been  taken  by  antislavery  men,  or  the  restriction- 
ists  as  they  were  called,  they  were  overwhelmingly  defeated 
in  the  contest  for  seats  to  the  constitutional  convention. 

This  convention  met  in  St.  Louis  in  June,  1820,  and  in  a 
little  over  a  month  adopted  a  constitution  which  went  into 
effect  at  once  without  ratification  by  the  people.^  In  it  the 
legislative  powers  was  vested  in  a  General  Assembly  com- 
posed of  a  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives.  The 
House  was  made  up  of  representatives  of  the  counties,  at 
least  one  to  each  county,  popularly  elected  for  two  years. 
The  Senators  represented  their  districts  for  four  years. 
Clergymen  were  ineligible  to  membership  in  the  General 
Assembly.  The  executive  power  was  vested  in  a  Governor 
elected  for  a  four  year  term,  and  ineligible  to  re-election  until 
four  years  had  elapsed  after  his  term  of  office  had  expired. 
There  was  also  a  Lieut.  Governor,  elected  for  four  years. 
The  other  state  officers,  such  as  the  Secretary  of  State, 
Auditor,  Attorney  General,  Treasurer,  etc.,  were  appointed 
])y  the  Governor  for  four  years,  except  the  Treasurer,  who 
was  chosen  by  the  General  Assembly.  The  judicial  power 
was  vested  in  a  Supreme  Court,  a  Chancellor,  Circuit  courts, 
and  other  inferior  courts,  such  as  should  be  established  by 
the  General  Assembly.  The  Supreme  court  was  composed 
of  three  Judges  who  were  appointed  by  the  Governor, 
and  held  during  good  behaviour.     The  Chancellor  and  the 

1.  The  preamble  of  this  constitution  was  as  follows: —  "We  the 
people  of  Missouri,  inhabiting  the  limits  hereinafter  designated,  by  our 
representatives  in  convention  assembled,  at  St;  Louis,  on  Monday  the 
twelfth  day  of  .June,  1820,  do  mutually  agree  to  form  and  establish  a 
free  and  indejjendent  republic,  by  the  name  of  the  'State  of  Missouri,' 
and  for  the  government  thereof  do  ordain  and  establish  this  constitu- 
tion. "  The  use  of  the  term  republic  is  noteworthy  although  not  imique 
at  that  time  a.s  several  other  states  designated  themselv(\s  as  r(>publics 
in  their  constitutions. 


66  Chapters  in  Missouri  History 

Circuit  Judges  were  also  appointed  by  the  Governor,  with 
the  same  tenure  of  office.^  The  people  of  the  counties 
elected  their  own  sheriff  and  coroner. 

According  to  tradition  this  constitution  was  chiefly  the 
work  of  David  Barton,  who  was  the  presiding  officer  of  the 
convention,  and  who  was  later  one  of  the  first  two  United. 
States  Senators  from  Missouri.  But  there  is  little  foundation 
for  this,  the  leading  spirit  in  the  convention  being  one  Ed- 
ward Bates.  He  took  the  first  step  towards  framing  the 
constitution  by  moving  the  appointment  of  a  committee 
for  that  purpose.  It  was  decided  to  divide  the  work  among 
four  committees  which  should  report  to  a  central  one.  The 
document  thus  drawn  up  by  these  five  comrnittees  was  then 
revised  by  a  sixth  whose  chairman  was  Bates.  In  drafting 
the  different  articles  the  committees  evidently  used  the  con- 
stitution of  Kentucky  as  a  model,  but  portions  of  the  consti- 
tutions of  other  states  were  adapted  to  the  needs  of  Missouri 
as  they  were  conceived  by  the  convention,  and  there  seems 
to  have  been  no  hesitancy  in  taking  over  some  desirable 
features  of  both  northern  and  southern  constitutions.  It 
seems  that  portions  of  the  constitutions  of  Delaware,  Con- 
necticut, Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois  had  been 
used  in  the  drafting  of  the  Constitution  of  Missouri.  This 
is  particularly  true  for  Illinois,  Indiana,  Mississippi,  and 
Alabama,  all  of  which  had  been  established  within  four  or 
five  years  of  the  drafting  of  that  of  Missouri. 

The  first  election  under  this  constitution  was  held 
August  28,  1820,  when  Alexander  McNair  was  chosen  Gov- 
ernor, and  William  Ashley,  Lieut.  Governor.  They  assumed 
office  early  in  September.  John  Scott  who  had  long  been  the 
territorial  delegate  to  Congress,  was  elected  the  first  repre- 
sentative to  that  body.  The  General  Assembly  met  in  St. 
Louis  and  elected  David  Barton  and  Thomas  Hart  Benton 

1.  The  Chancellor  and  Court  of  Chancery  were  abolished  by  a 
constitutional  amendment  in  1822. 


Admission  of  ^Iissouri  67 

to  the  United  States  Senate.  Barton  was  elected  first  and 
uanimously ,  l)ut  Benton  was  elected  only  after  a  very  close  and 
hard  race.  There  seem  to  have  been  five  men  in  the  race 
for  the  second  senatorship.  Balloting  went  on  for  several  days- 
without  any  result.  Barton  was  then  asked  to  make  known 
his  personal  preference  among  the  candidates,  and  he  named 
Benton.  Even  so  the  opposition  to  Benton  was  still  very 
strong  and  the  prospects  for  his  election  were  not  any  brighter. 
He  was  finally  elected  by  the  bare  majority  of  one.  Accord- 
ing to  a  story  that  is  told,  the  last  two  men  who  came  to 
his  support  were  Le  Due  and  Ralls.  LeDuc  was  a  Frenchman 
and  a  representative  from  St.  Louis.  He  was  particularly 
interested  in  having  Congress  confirm  the  various  French 
and  Spanish  land  claims  held  by  people  in  Missouri,  and 
when  it  was  told  him  that  these  claims  would  be  confirmed  if 
Benton  was  elected  to  the  Senate,  he  cast  his  vote  for  Benton 
in  spite  of  his  personal  opposition  to  the  man.  Mr.  Ralls, 
the  second  of  these  two  men  who  made  Benton's  election 
possible,  was  at  that  time  lying  at  the  point  of  death,  but  the 
friends  of  Benton  managed  to  bring  the  stricken  man  to 
the  assembly  on  his  bed,  whereupon  he  cast  the  deciding  vote 
for  Benton. 

At  the  same  session  of  the  General  Assembly  that  elected 
Barton  and  Benton  United  States  Senators,  St.  Charles  was 
made  the  temporary  capital  of  the  State,  and  a  commission 
was  appointed  to  locate  the  permanent  capital  which  the 
constitution  of  the  state  had  provided  should  be  on  the 
Missouri  river  within  forty  miles  of  the  mouth  of  the  Osage. 
After  a  long  time  Jefferson  City  was  chosen  by  the  commis- 
sion and  the  first  session  of  the  General  Assembly  was  held 
there  in  1826. 

Altho  Missouri  had  succeeded  in  organizing  herself 
under  her  new  state  constitution  l)y  September,  1820,  she  was 
not  admitted  into  the  Union  until  nearly  a  year  later.     The 


68  Chapters  in  Missouri  History 

reason  for  the  delay  was  the  objection  that  was  raised  in 
Congress  to  a  certain  chiuse  in  her  newly  adopted  consti- 
tution. This  clause  provided  that  it  should  be  the  duty 
of  the  General  Assembly  to  pass  such  laws  as  might  be 
necessary  to  prevent  free  negroes  and  mulattoes  from  coming 
to  and  settling  in  Missouri  under  any  circumstances. 

It  is  not  necessary  here  to  review  the  debates  that  took 
place  in  Congress  over  this  matter.  It  will  be  sufficient  to 
recall  that  a  compromise  was  finally  agreed  upon,  known  as 
the  Second  Missouri  Compromise,  whereby  Missouri  was 
allowed  to  come  into  the  Union  with  her  constitution,  pro- 
vided: first,  that  the  objectionable  clause  should  never  be 
construed  by  the  state  to  authorize  the  passage  of  a  law  by 
which  any  citizen  of  any  of  the  states  of  the  Union  should  be 
excluded  from  the  enjoyment  of  any  of  the  privileges  and 
immunities  to  which  such  citizen  is  entitled  under  the  con- 
stitution of  the  United  States;  and  second,  that  the  legisla- 
ture of  the  state  by  a  solemn  public  act  should  declare  the 
assent  of  the  state  to  this  fundamental  condition.  It  was 
further  provided  that  when  the  President  should  have  re- 
ceived an  authentic  copy  of  this  solemn  public  act,  he  should 
announce  the  fact  and  thereupon  the  admission  of  Missouri 
would  be  completed. 

To  this  condition  laid  down  by  Congress,  the  Legisla- 
ture of  Missouri  readily  complied  in  a  special  session  held 
in  June,  1821.  But  in  doing  so  that  body  expressed  very 
clearly  in  its  solemn  public  act  its  opinion  that  Congress  had 
no  constitutional  power  whatsoever  to  prescribe  any  condi- 
tion upon  the  admission  of  a  state  into  the  Union,  and  that, 
the  General  Assembly  in  passing  the  act  had  no  power  to 
change  the  operation  of  the  constitution  except  in  the  mode 
prescribed  by  the  constitution  itself.  The  fact  that  the 
Missourians  felt  they  were  doing  an  absurd  thing  in  passing 
this  act  and  that  they  realized  the  humor  of  the  situation, 
is  plainly  seen  in  the  language  of  the  act  itself. 


Admission  of  Missouri  69 

An  authentic  copy  of  the  act  having  reached  President 
Monroe,  he  proceeded  to  announce  on  August  10,  1821  the 
admission  of  Missouri  into  the  Union. 

References: — Changes  in  the  Territorial  Organization,  1804-16, 
HoucK,  History  of  Missouri,  III,  1-33.  Petitions  for  Admission  of 
Missouri  and  Agitation  in  Missouri  over  the  Missouri  Bill,  Houck, 
III,  chap.  XXIX,  and  Hodder.  Side  Lights  on  the  Missouri  Compro- 
mise, in  the  Missouri  Historical  Review,  April,  1911.  First  Constitu- 
tion of  Missouri,  Shoemaker,  The  First  Constitution  of  Missoui  i,  in 
Missouri  Historical  Review,  Jan.  1912. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

PRESIDENTAL  ELECTION  OF  1820. 

[To  bo  used  in  connection  with  tiie  study  of  the  election  of  1820. 
James  ct  Suriford,  2S0;  Muzzey,  23G;    Hart,  306;  Montgomery,  292.] 

The  Presidential  election  of  1820  occurred  while  the 
matter  of  Missouri's  admission  into  the  Union  was  yet 
pending.  As  we  have  seen  in  a  former  chapter,  Congress 
had  passed  a  bill  early  in  1820  which  authorized  Missouri 
to  draw  up  a  constitution  and  organize  a  state  government. 
Acting  under  this  authority  the  people  of  Missouri  elected 
a  constitutional  convention  which  drafted  a  constitution 
and  declared  it  in  force,  whereupon  officers  for  the  state 
were  elected.  All  of  this  was  done  almost  two  months  before 
the  national  election  in  November,  1820.  Preparations 
were  made  for  the  people  of  Missouri  to  take  part  in  that 
election,  and  three  electors  were  chosen  who  at  the  proper 
time  cast  their  votes  for  Monroe. 

When  the  time  came  for  Congress  to  canvass  the  results 
of  the  election,  the  question  arose  at  once  as  to  whether 
Missouri  had  a  right  to  cast  a  vote  for  President  or  not. 
The  same  question  had  come  up  in  1817  in  regard  to  Indiana. 
At  the  time  of  the  election  in  1816,  Indiana  had  not  been 
fully  admitted  into  the  Union,  but  by  the  time  .the  votes 
were  counted  the  admission  had  been  completed.  A  long 
debate  took  place  in  Congress  when  the  electoral  votes 
were  being  canvassed  and  it  was  finally  decided  to  count 
Indiana's  vote,  but  no  action  was  taken  which  would  govern 
like  cases  which  might  arise  in  the  future. 

In  the  case  of  Missouri  in  1820  the  situation  was  more 
complicated  and  perplexing  than  in  the  case  of  Indiana.  Not 
only  had  Missouri  not  been  admitted  into  the  Union  when 
the  election  occurred  in  November,  1820,  but  she  was  yet 
out  of  it  when  the  time  came  to  canvass  the  votes.     More- 

70 


Presidential  Election  of  1820  71 

over  Congress  was  at  that  time  discussing  the  conditions 
under  which  Missouri  should  be  admitted,  and  it  appeared 
doubtful  to  many  as  to  whether  Missouri  would  ever  consent 
to  the  conditions  that  were  being  discussed. 

Now  Missouri's  vote,  whether  counted  or  not,  would 
not  affect  the  results  of  the  electioji.  Monroe  was  bound  to 
be  elected  which  ever  way  Missouri's  vote  was  disposed  of. 
But  the  situation  was  embarrassing,  nevertheless,  because 
of  the  unsettled  questions  about  the  conditions  under  which 
Missouri  might  be  allowed  to  come  into  the  Union. 

Congress  therefore  resorted  to  a  method  which  left  the 
point  yet  unsettled.  A  joint  committee  of  the  two  houses 
was  appointed  to  ascertain  and  report  a  mode  of  examining 
the  electoral  votes.  In  its  report  the  committee  included 
a  provision  to  the  effect  that  if  any  objection  was  made  to 
the  votes  of  Missouri  they  should  be  reported  by  the  President 
of  the  Senate  in  the  following  manner:  "Were  the  votes 
of  Missouri  to  be  counted  the  result  would  be  for  A.  B.  for 
President  of  the  United  States  ....  votes;  if  not  counted, 
for  A.  B.  for  the  President  of  the  United  States  ....  votes. 
But  in  either  event  A.  B.  is  elected  President  of  the  United 
States.     And  in  the  same  manner  for  Vice-President." 

The  report  was  debated  in  both  the  Senate  and  the 
House,  and  after  prolonged  discussion  which  was  especially 
bitter  in  the  House,  it  was  adopted.  The  votes  of  Missouri 
were  allowed  to  be  cast  in  accordance  with  the  prescribed 
form. 

References:— Stanwood,  History  of  the  Presidency,  115-24. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

MISSOURI  POLITICS,  1820-1832. 

[This  should  be  used  in  connection  with  the  re-election  of  Jackson 
in  1832.  James  &  Sanford,  :3()9;  Muzzey,  285;  Channing,  420;  Hart, 
320;    Montgomery,  322.] 

The  political  situation  through  out  the  United  States 
at  the  time  when  Missouri  was  admitted  into  the  Union 
was  decidedly  unique  in  our  national  history.  There  was 
only  one  pohtical  party  in  existence,  and  that  was  the  old 
Republican  party  which  had  been  established  by  Jefferson. 
The  election  of  Monroe  in  1820  was  practically  unanimous, 
there  being  only  one  electoral  vote  cast  against  him.  It  is 
not  necessary  for  us  to  go  into  detail  here  regarding  the 
political  development  that  took  place  during  the  period 
frpm  1820  to  1832.  It  will  be  sufficient  for  us  to  recall 
that  the  "era  of  good  feehngs"  that  prevailed  in  1820  was 
followed,  by  a  period  of  intense  personal  rivalry  among 
men  of  the  same  party,  as  is  seen  in  the  presidential  campaign 
of  1824  when  John  Quincy  Adams  was  elected;  that  by 
1828  a  beginning  was  made  towards  the  formation  of  new 
parties  with  Jackson  as  the  leader  of  one  and  with  Adams 
of  the  other;  that  by  1832  the  Democratic  and  National 
Republican  parties  were  definitely  formed  and  lined  up 
against  each  other. 

The  course  of  Missouri  politics  during  the  period  from 
1820  to  1832  followed  that  of  national  politics.  In  1820 
there  were  no  rival  party  organizations  in  Missouri  and  the 
three  electoral  votes  of  the  state  were  cast  in  that  year  for 
Monroe.  The  contest  for  the  governorship  also  lacked 
party  features.  It  was  a  contest  between  two  men  on  the 
basis  of  their  personal  popularity.  Alexander  McNair 
was  elected  by  an  overwhelming  majority  of  4,020  votes 
out  of  a  grand  total  of  9,132.  John  Scott  was  in  the  same 
year  elected  Representative  to  Congress  without  any  opposi- 

72 


Missouri  Politics,  1820-1832  73 

tion  at  all,  and  likewise  David  Barton  to  the  United  States 
Senate.  The  contest  over  the  second  senatorship  between 
Benton  and  other  candidates,  which  was  related  in  a  former 
chapter,  was  a  purely  personal  affair. 

By  1824  the  political  situation  was  unchanged.  No 
political  parties  had  been  formed  and  contests  for  offices 
were  still  personal  rivalries.  The  race  for  Governor  was 
made  by  Frederic  Bates  and  William  H.  Ashley  on  purely 
personal  grounds.  Bates  was  elected,  but  as  he  died  about 
a  year  later,  it  was  necessary  to  hold  a  special  election  to 
fill  out  his  unexpired  term.  Four  men  were  candidates, 
John  Miller,  David  Todd,  William  C.  Carr,  and  Rufus 
Eaton.  Miller  was  elected  after  a  campaign  marked  by 
very  bitter  personal  rivalries. 

In  the  presidential  campaign  of  1824,  Clay,  because 
of  his  great  popularity  among  the  people  of  Missouri,  carried 
the  State  by  a  large  vote.  But  when  the  election  was  thrown 
into  the  House  of  Representatives  because  of  the  failure  of  any 
one  of  the  four  candidates  to  receive  a  majority  of  the  votes 
of  the  electoral  college,  Clay's  name  was  eliminated  by 
virtue  of  the  constitutional  provision  which  provided  that 
only  the  three  receiving  the  highest  electoral  vote  should  l)p 
submitted  to  the  House.  Clay  thereupon  urged  his  supporters 
to  vote  for  Adams,  and  so  Scott  finally  consented  to  cast 
the  vote  of  Missouri  for  him.  In  this  decision  he  was 
upheld  by  Senator  Barton  but  opposed  by  Senator 
Benton  who  favored  Jackson.  Scott)  Barton,  and  Benton 
had  supported  Clay  in  the  campaign,  but  they  were  divided 
in  their  views  as  to  whom  they  would  support  after  Clay 
was  eliminated  from  the  race.  The  effects  of  this  division 
was  far  reaching  as  we  shall  soon  see. 

It  will  be  recalled  that  the  presidential  campaign  of 
1828  began  immediately  after  the  election  of  Adams  by  the 
House  in  1825.  Jackson  claimed  he  was  entitled  to  the 
election  by  the  House  because  he  had  been  given  the  largest 


74  Chapters  in  Missouri  History 

electoral  vote,  and  he  vehemently  charged  Adams  and  Clay 
with  entering  into  a  corrupt  bargain  to  secure  the  election 
of  Adams.  A  party  of  opposition  was  therefore  formed  by 
Jackson  which  was  known  at  first  as  Jackson's  party. 

In  Missouri  Senator  Benton  took  the  lead  in  organizing 
this  party.  He  became  the  logical  leader  through  his  sup- 
port of  Jackson  in  the  House  contest  in  1825.  By  1828 
the  formation  of  the  Jackson  party  had  been  effected  in 
Missouri  and  it  was  able  to  signalize  its  appearance  by 
making  a  clean  sweep  in  the  state  on  both  the  national  and 
state  tickets.  The  Jackson  electors  had  been  nominated 
by  a  convention  of  his  friends  in  Jefferson  City  early  in  the 
year.  The  Adams  electors  were  nominated  a  couple  of 
months  later.  John  Miller  was  the  Jackson  candidate 
for  re-election  to  the  Governorship.  For  some  time  several 
Adams  men  were  mentioned  as  opponents  to  him,  but 
no  one  stayed  in  the  race,  so  that  Miller  was  elected  without 
opposition.  Edward  Bates  sought  re-election  to  Congress 
on  the  Adams  ticket.^  Opposed  to  him  were  William  Carr 
Lane  and  Spencer  Pettis,  two  Jackson  men.  It  was  apparent 
to  every  one  that  if  these  three  men  made  the  race.  Bates 
would  be  elected.  The  Jackson  men  disliked  this  prospect 
and  they  finally  arranged  to  have  the  matter  submitted  to 
Benton  with  the  request  that  he  should  decide  between  the 
two  Jackson  candidates  as  to  which  one  should  retire.  He 
promptly  declared  that  Lane  should  withdraw,  and  hand  bills 
were  thereupon  sent  out  to  all  parts  of  the  state  notifying 
the  people  of  that  fact.  Pettis  was  overwhelmingly  elected 
by  a  vote  of  8,272  as  opposed  to  3,400  cast  for  Bates. 

In  the  campaign  of  1832  Jackson  not  only  carried  the 
state  of  Missouri  for  himself  against  Clay,  but  he  carried 
the  whole  Democratic  state  ticket  with  him.  Dunklin 
was  elected  Governor  by  a  majority  of  1100  over  all  other 
candidates. 

1.  Bates  had  been  Representative  in  Congress  from  Missouri 
since  1820  when  he  defeated  Scott. 


Missouri  Politics,  1820-1832  75 

By  that  year  Missouri  was  definitely  committed  to 
the  Democratic  party  and  remained  that  way  until  the  Civil 
War  broke  out.  Both  the  national  and  state  Democratic 
tickets  were  elected  in  the  state  in  every  campaign  during 
this  interval  of  nearly  thirty  years.  Meanwhile  the  men 
who  had  opposed  Jackson  in  the  House  election  in  1825 
had  been  completely  eliminated  from  Missouri  politics. 
Scott  who  had  cast  the  Missouri  vote  for  Adams  was  defeated 
for  re-election  to  Congress  in  1826,  and  Barton  who  had 
supported  Scott  in  that  action  was  defeated  for  re-election 
to  the  United  States  Senate  in  1830.  Barton  later  sought 
to  defeat  Pettis,  a  Jackson  candidate  for  Congress,  in  1832, 
but  failed.  He  however  succeeded  in  being  elected  to  the 
State  Senate  but  died  very  shortly  thereafter. 

References: — Viles,  History  of  Missouri,  89-96;  Switzler, 
History  of  Missouri,  211-22,  passim;  Davis  &  Durrie,  History  of 
Missouri,  77-103,  passim. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

THE  RAILROADS  OF  MISSOURI. 

[Section  I  of  this  chapter  may  be  used  in  connection  with  the  study 
of  the  condition  of  the  railroads  in  the  United  States  in  1850.  James 
&  Sanford,  304;  Muzzey,  367;  Channing,  487;  Hart,  392;  Mont- 
gomery, 360.] 

Section  II  may  be  used  at  the  same  time  as  Section  I  if  the  teacher 
should  see  fit,  but  if  he  thinks  best  to  defer  it  until  later,  he  might  take 
it  up  in  connection  with  the  industrial  situations  after  the  Civil  War. 
James  &  Sanford,  455;  Muzzey,  513;  Channing,  584;  Hart,  302; 
Montogmery,  482.] 

Section  I. 

The  first  railroad  that  was  built  in  the  United  States 
for  the  purpose  of  carrying  both  passengers  and  freight  was 
the  Baltimore  &  Ohio,  the  first  rail  of  which  was  laid  on 
July  4,  1828  by  Charles  Carroll  who  was  at  that  time  the 
only  surviving  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 
Originally  the  cars  and  coaches  on  this  road  were  drawn  by 
horses,  but  in  a  year  or  two  the  locomotive  engine  was 
introduced.  By  1830  fifteen  miles  of  this  road  had  been 
completed.  Already  other  roads  were  being  planned  and 
in  a  few  years  were  under  construction,  so  that  by  1850  a 
little  more  than  9,000  miles  had  been  built. 

Notwithstanding  all  this  progress  in  railroad  building 
throughout  the  United  States,  not  one  mile  was  constructed 
in  Missouri  until  1851,  unless  a  five  mile  road  whose  rails 
and  cross  ties  were  built  entirely  of  timber  and  which  extended 
from  Richmond  to  a  Missouri  river  point  opposite  Lexing- 
ton, is  counted  as  a  railroad.  This  road  was  built  it  is 
thought,  sometime,  between  1849  and  1850,  and  was  operated 
by  horse  power. 

The  question  naturally  arises  why  Missouri  was  so 
long  without  railroads.  The  answer  to  it  is  to  be  found 
first  of  all  in  the  conservative  character  of  the  people  in 
the  state.     This  has  been  a  marked  trait  of  Missourians 

76 


The  Railroads  of  Missouri  77 

throughout  their  history.  Railroads  were  an  innovation 
in  1830  and  the  general  feeling  in  Missouri  seems  to  have 
Ijeen  that  there  should  be  no  haste  in  introducing  them. 
The  bitter  experiences  which  many  other  states  had  in  pro- 
moting railroads  during  the  thirties  no  doubt  strengthened 
this  natural  conservativeness  of  the  people  of  Missouri. 
Even  as  late  as  1847  Governor  Edwards  said  that  a  campaign 
of  education  was  needed  to  make  the  people  appreciate  the 
uses  and  advantages  of  macadamized  roads,  railroads  and 
canals. 

In  the  second  place,  the  state  was  well  blest  with  great 
natural  highways  of  commerce  in  the  Mississippi  and  the 
Missouri  and  their  tributaries.  The  invention  of  the  steam- 
boat made  these  natural  highways  all  the  more  important 
and  profitable  to  Missouri.  The  first  steamboat  to  reach 
St.  Louis  arrived  in  1816,  and  the  first  to  ascend  the  Missouri 
to  Franklin  in  Howard  County  made  the  trip  in  1819.  The 
steamboat  not  only  made  it  easier  for  the  people  of  Missouri 
to  reach  the  outside  world  but  also  to  communicate  between 
different  parts  of  the  state.  Towns  sprang  up  along  the 
Mississippi  and-  the  Missouri  and  their  tributaries,  and 
though  they  were  not  large  they  did  a  thriving  business. 
Many  of  them  were  connected  with  the  outlying  districts 
by  well  constructed  roads  of  plank,  gravel,  or  rock  which 
were  as  a  rule  toll  roads  built  by  private  parties  or  companies. 
There  seems  never  to  have  been  any  interest  in  the  state 
in  the  building  of  canals  as  was  the  case  in  many  other 
states  at  that  time. 

In  the  third  place,  money  was  lacking  to  l)uild  and  operate 
railroads.  The  population  of  Missouri  numbered  only 
140,455  in  1830  and  only  323,868  in  1840,  and  capital  for 
such  enterprises  was  not  available  among  so  few  people, 
especially  since  the  most  of  them  were  engaged  in  agricul- 
ture. It  appears  also  that  eastern  capitalists,  who  today 
furnish  so  much  of  the  capital  necessary  to  promote  the 


78  Chapters  in  Missouri  History 

great  enterprises  of  our  country,  either  were  not  able  to 
take  up  railroad  building  in  Missouri  or  did  not  consider  it 
to  their  advantage  to  do  so.  From  the  first  it  seemed  ap- 
parent to  those  who  were  interested  in  having  railroads 
built  in  Missouri,  that  assistance  must  be  secured  from  either 
the  national  or  the  state  government  or  from  both.  Inas- 
much as  this  government  assistance  was  a  long  time  in 
materializing,  we  seem  to  find  here  the  chief  reason  for  the 
delay  in  the  beginning  of  railroad  construction  in  Missouri. 

It  should  not  be  inferred,  however,  that  during  these 
twenty  years  (1830-1850),  no  efforts  were  made  to  get  rail- 
roads started  in  Missouri.  Agitation  for  them  began  rather 
early  and  the  first  step,  as  far  as  we  know,  was  taken  in 
1836.  On  April  30  of  that  year  the  first  railroad  convention 
held  in  Missouri  met  in  St.  Louis.  It  was  attended  by  fifty 
nine  delegates  from  eleven  different  counties.^  Resolutions 
were  of  course  passed  in  which  the  advantages  of  railroads 
were  set  forth.  Two  lines  of  railroads  running  out  of  St. 
Louis  were  recommended :  one  was  to  go  to  Fayette  by  way 
of  St.  Charles,  Warrenton,  Fulton,  and  Columbia  for  the 
purpose  of  opening  up  an  agricultural  region;  the  other 
to  the  valle}'  of  Bellevue  in  Washington  County,  with 
a  branch  to  at  least  the  Meramec  Iron  Works  in  Crawford 
County,  for  the  .purpose  of  developing  a  mineral  region. 
Congress  was  petitioned  to  grant  500,000  acres  of  public 
lands  to  encourage  these  enterprises,  and  the  suggestion 
was  also  made  that  the  state  of  Missouri  might  well  place 
its  credit  at  the  disposal  of  the  companies  that  would  under- 
take to  build  these  roads. 

In  the  fall  of  the  same  year  in  which  this  convention 

was  held.  Governor  Boggs  in  his  message  to  the  legislature 

expressed  himself  strongly  in  favor  of  a  general  system  of 

1.  These  eleven  counties  were  St.  Louis,  Lincoln,  Washington 
Cooper,  Warren,  St.  Charles,  Callaway,  Montgomery,  Boone.  Howard, 
and  Jefferson. 


The  Railroads  of  Missouri  79 

railroad  construction.  Acting  under  the  inspiration  of  this 
recommendation  and  doubtless  of  the  resolutions  of  the 
recent  railroad  convention,  the  legislature  proceeded  to 
incorporate  during  the  months  of  January  and  February, 
1837  at  least  eighteen  railroads  whose  aggregate  capital 
stock  amounted  to  about  $7,875,000.  These  roads  were 
all  to  be  very  short,  ranging  in  length  from  five  to  one  hundred 
and  twenty  miles.  They  were  to  connect  the  large  country 
towns  with  each  other  or  with  river  points.  Ten  of  the 
eighteen  roads  were  to  be  less  than  twenty-five  miles  in 
length.  The  capital  stock  of  these  roads  varied  from  $25,- 
000  to  $2,000,000  though  in  most  cases  the  stock  ran  at 
$150,000  or  less. 

To  appreciate  this  action  of  the  legislature  of  Missouri, 
one  must  recall  that  the  early  thirties  were  a  period  of 
general  speculation  throughout  the  whole  country,  and  that 
the  Missouri  legislature  in  chartering  railroads  so  freely 
was  only  imitating  the  example  of  many  other  states.  But 
no  progress  amounting  to  any  thing  was  ever  made  towards 
building  these  roads,  for  which  no  doubt  the  panic  of  1837 
was  largely  responsible. 

For  ten  years  or  more  after  it  had  become  apparent  that 
none  of  the  railroads  that  had  been  incorporated  in  1837 
would  be  built,  interest  in  railroads  declined  to  a  very  low 
state.  The  Board  of  Internal  Improvements  which  had 
been  created  by  the  legislature  in  1838  to  supervise  and 
control  all  the  state  roads,  railroads,  slack  water  naviga- 
tion, and  canals  that  might  be  authorized  by  law  wherein 
the  state  should  own  or  reserve  any  interests  or  rights,  was 
abolished  in  1845.  Moreover,  the  proceeds  that  had  been 
realized  from  the  sale  of  the  500,000  acres  of  land  granted 
l)y  Congress  for  the  purpose  of  assisting  internal  improve- 
ments in  Missouri,  were  divided  among  the  counties  of  the 
state  to  be  used  in  the  construction  of  roads.  Wliile  the 
interest  in  railroads  did  not  die  out  completely,  yet  it  had 


80  Chapters  in  Missouri  History 

})ocome  so  low  that  Governor  Edwards  said  in  1847,  as  has 
already  been  mentioned  that  it  was  necessary  to  begin  a 
campaign  of  education  among  the  people  to  get  them  to 
see  the  advisability  of  doing  something  to  get  railroads. 
It  was  not  until  1850,  however,  that  the  people  really  became 
thoroughly  interested  in  the  matter. 

The  reasons  for  the  revival  of  interest  by  that  time  are 
obvious.  In  the  first  place,  the  population  of  the  state 
had  more  than  quadrupled  itself  in  the  preceding  twenty 
years.  In  1830  it  was  140,455;  in  1850  it  was  682,044. 
This  increase  in  population  had  taken  place  not  only  in  the 
older  portions  of  the  state,  that  is  along  the  Mississippi 
and  the  Missouri,  but  also  in  the  more  inland  parts  of  the 
state  as  well. 

Not  only  had  there  been  a  marked  increase  in  the 
population  of  the  state  by  1850,  but  the  general  business 
of  the  country  had  begun  to  revive  from  the  effects  of  the 
panic  of  1837,  and  Missouri  shared  in  the  general  resumption. 
Under  these  circumstances  Missourians  began  to  realize  that 
their  transportation  facilities  were  insufficient  for  any  notable 
expanision  of  trade  and  commerce.  Though  the  ]VI*ississippi 
and  the  Missouri  were  the  natural  highways  of  commerce, 
navigation  was  uncertain  then  as  now  upon  them,  especially 
upon  the  Missouri  and  her  tributaries,  because  of  the  sandy 
nature  of  the  soil  that  forms  their  beds,  and  as  early  as  1838 
the  state  had  begun  to  memorialize  Congress  to  appropriate 
funds  toward  making  these  rivers  more  navigable.  More- 
over, the  toll  roads  that  had  been  built  were  inadequate 
except  for  local  purposes.  If  therefore  the  resources  of 
the  state  were  to  be  developed  on  a  large  scale  and  if  the 
commercial  interests  of  St.  Louis,  the  chief  trade  center  of 
the  state  and  of  the  Mississippi  valley,  were  to  be  enhanced, 
it  was  evident  that  better  transportation  facilities  must  be 
secured  as  soon  as  possible. 


The  Railroads  of  Missouri  81 

This  fact  was  brought  home  to  the  people  of  Missouri 
very  forcibly  by  the  decline  of  the  Santa  Fe  trade.  From 
about  1806  to  1840  commercial  adventurers  from  Missouri, 
especially  from  St.  Louis,  had  maintained  considerable 
trade  by  means  of  pack  mules  and  wagons  between  Missouri 
and  Mexico.  This  trade  was  at  its  height  in  1828,  but  by 
1840  it  had  practically  ceased,  and  thereafter  traders  from 
New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  New  Orleans  were  making  their 
way  to  Mexico  by  way  of  the  Gulf. 

Not  only  had  Missouri's  trade  with  Mexico  been  cut 
off,  but  the  rapid  growth  of  Chicago  as  a  trading  point  was 
threatening  the  commercial  interests  of  St.  Louis  and  the 
rest  of  the  state  throughout  the  Mississippi  valley.  St. 
Louis  had  a  population  of  80,081  in  1850  and  was  at  that 
time  the  leading  manufacturing  center  in  the  Mississippi 
valley.  But  Chicago  was  coming  on  at  a  markedly  rapid 
pace.  It  had  grown  from  a  mere  trading  post  of  4,470  in- 
habitants in  1840  to  a  thriving  city  of  30,000  in  1850.  While 
it  was  as  yet  behind  St.  Louis  in  manufactures,  having  onlj^ 
about  one  fourth  as  much  capital  invested  in  them  as  St. 
Loui.s,  it  was  well  in  the  lead  in  commerce.  More  corn, 
wool,  lumber,  and  hides  were  bought  and  sold  in  Chicago 
than  in  St.  Louis.  That  was  partly  due  to  the  opening  up 
of  the  Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal  which  connected  Lake 
Michigan  and  the  Illinois  River,  and  partly  to  the  construc- 
tion of  several  short  railroads  terminating  in  Chicago. 
Realizing  the  vast  commercial  benefits  that  were  being 
derived  through  these  railroads,  (Chicago  was  exerting  herself 
tremendously  to  have  these  roads  extended  so  that  a  larger 
territory  would  be  reached.  It  seemed  evident  that  if 
things  kept  on  going  as  they  had  started,  St.  Louis  would 
lose  most,  if  not  all,  the  trade  that  .otherwise  her  natural 
position  would  bring  her  from  the  Upper  Misisssppi  and 
the  Illinois  countrj'. 

But  there  was  another  bad  prospect  in  store  for  St. 


82  C.'haptek.s  in  Missouri  History 

Louis.  Not  onl}'  was  her  t;;ade  along  the  Upper  Mississippi 
and  throughout  Illinois  thus  threatened  by  the  railways 
that  were  being  built  out  of  Chicago,  but  there  was  little  or 
nothing  being  done  to  increase  her  trade  with  the  interior 
of  Missouri.  Even  though  the  trade  with  the  Upper  Miss- 
issippi and  the  Illinois  rivers  was  threatened  by  the  rise  of 
Chicago,  most  of  the  vessels  that  reached  the  port  of  St. 
Louis  in  1849  came  from  those  rivers  and  not  from  the 
Missouri.  The  agricultural  and  mineral  resources  of  the  state 
were  not  being  worked  to  anything  like  their  fullest  capacity, 
and  hence  there  was  no  prospect  of  any  great  increase  in 
trade  with  the  interior  of  the  state. 

At  the  same  time  that  Missourians  were  beginning  to 
realize  the  necessity  of  having  railroads,  they  were  also 
thinking  of  how  the  funds  for  constructing  them  were  to  be 
obtained.  It  did  not  seem  possible  to  obtain  the  amounts 
necessary  from  the  private  capital  within  the  state.  Even 
as  late  as  1850  the  population  of  the  state  was  only  682,044 
and  the  assessed  valuation  of  their  property  was  onlj^  $89,- 
460,803,  and  inasmuch  as  the  chief  industry  of  the  state  was 
as  yet  agriculture,  there  was  comparatively  little  available 
capital  for  any  large  enterprises  like  railroads. 

Since  therefore,  it  seemed  impossible  to  get  the  neces- 
sary funds  for  railroads  from  private  capital  within  the  state, 
it  was  hoped  that  Congress  might  do  something  towards 
building  them.  We  have  seen  that  the  railroad  conven- 
tion held  in  St.  Louis  in  1836  had  asked  Congress  to  grant 
500,000  acres  of  public  land  to  aid  in  building  the  two  roads 
that  it  proposed.  Moreover,  similar  memorials  were  sent 
to  Congress  at  different  times  thereafter  asking  for  other 
grants  of  land.  We  have  also  seen  that  Congress  had  made  an 
actual  grant  of  500,000  acres  in  1841,  which  the  Missouri 
legislature  voted  in  1 845  to  dispose  of  to  the  counties  when  it 
became  apparent  that,  none  of  the  roads  that  had  been 
chartered  in  1837  would  be  built. 


The  Railroads  of  Missouri  83 

But  if  there  was  little  in  this  on  which  to  base  any  great 
expectations,  there  was  reason  to  believe,  for  a  while  at 
least,  that  Congress  would  provide  for  a  trans-continental 
road  which  would  connect  the  Atlantic  and  the  Pacific, 
and  efforts  were  made  to  get  Congress  to  build  this  road 
through  Missouri.  There  was  a  good  deal  of  agitation  con- 
cerning a  transcontinental  road  between  1840  and  1850,  and 
after  the  acquisition  of  California  and  the  discovery  of  gold 
in  that  region,  this  project  was  talked  about  more  than 
ever.  The  question  as  to  where-  this  line  should  cross  the 
Mississippi  was  a  vital  one,  and  three  different  points  were 
proposed,  Prairie  du  Chien  in  Wisconsin,  St.  Louis  in  Missouri 
and  Memphis  in  Tennessee.  People  in  Missouri  were  in- 
terested in  having  this  road  pass  through  St.  Louis  and 
across  the  state  and  a  convention  was  held  in  St.  Louis  in 
the  fall  of  1849  to  foster  that  scheme.  It  was  attended 
by  about  1,000  delegates,  over  one  half  of  whom  came,  as 
was  natural,  from  Missouri,  and  more  than  one  fourth  from 
Illinois.  But  there  were  delegates  from  ten  other  states, 
including  Pennsylvania,  New  York,  Ohio,  Indiana,  Ken- 
tucky, Wisconsin,  Iowa,  Michigan,  Louisiana,  and  Tennessee. 

As  far  as  practical  results  are  concerned  nothing  came 
from  this  agitation.  Senator  Benton,  it  is  true,  introduced  a 
bill  in  the  senate  for  the  building  of  a  road  from  St.  Louis 
to  San  Francisco  out  of  the  nation's  resources  but  it  got  very 
little  consideration.  In  fact  as  far  as  members  of  Congress 
showed  any  interest  in  a  transcontinental  railroad  at  all, 
they  favored  a  northern  route  in  preference  to  either  of  the 
two  southern  routes  that  had  Ix^cn  proposed. 

As  it  appeared  that  helj)  from  Congress  was  not  to  be 
had,  the  feeling  grew  among  Missourians  that  state  aid 
must  be  secured  in  some  form  or  other.  The  experience 
which  other  states  had  had  in  attempting  to  construct  and 
operate  railroads  as  state  enterprises  or  in  holding  a  certain 
amount  of  stock  in  railroads,  was  such  as  to  make  it  inad- 


84  Chapters  in  Missouri  History 

visable  to  do  either  of  these  things.  Governor  King,  there- 
fore, proposed  to  the  legishiture  in  his  message  in  1850  that 
the  state  should  put  its  credit  to  the  use  of  the  railroads  by- 
way of  issuing  bonds  and  lending  to  them  the  money  realized 
from  the  sale  of  these  bonds.  In  return  the  railroad 
companies  were  to  pay  an  annual  interest  at  the  rateof  6% 
and  to  pay  off  the  principal  in  twenty  years. 

The  action  taken  by  the  legislature,  to  whom  this 
suggestion  was  made,  indicates  that  it  was  most  heartily 
approved.  On  February  22,  1851  a  law  was  passed  which 
granted  aid  to  two  roads,  the  Hannibal  &  St.  Joseph  and  the 
Pacific.  To  the  former  there  was  granted  $1,500,000  and 
to  the  latter  $2,000,000.  The  Hannibal  &  St.  Joseph, 
which  had  been  incorporated  in  1847,  was  to  connect  Hannibal 
on  the  Mississippi  with  St.  Joseph  on  the  Missouri.  The 
Pacific,  which  had  been  incorporated  between  1847  and  1851, 
was  to  run  from  St.  Louis  to  Jefferson  City  and  from  thence 
to  the  western  boundary  of  the  state. 

Now  that  the  state  had  entered  upon  a  policy  of  grant- 
ing aid  to  railroads,  it  was  not  slow  in  enlarging  upon  its 
plans.  By  1860  it  had  issued  bonds  in  behalf  of  six  different 
railroads  to  the  extent  of  $24,950,000.  These  roads  were 
the  Hannibal  &  St.  Joseph,  now  a  part  of  the  Burlington 
system;  the  Pacific,  now  a  part  of  the  Missouri  Pacific 
system;  the  Southwest  Branch  of  the  Pacific,  now  a  part  of 
the  Frisco  system;  the  North  Missouri,  now  a  part  of  the 
Wabash  system;  the  St.  Louis  &  Iron  Mountain,  now  a 
part  of  €he  St.  Louis  &  Iron  Mountain  system;  the  Platt6 
County,  now  a  part  of  the  Burlington  system;  the  and 
Cairo  &  Fulton,  now  a  part  of  the  St.  Louis  &  Iron  Moun- 
tain system.  A  few  words  on  the  history  of  the  granting 
of  these  bonds  and  of  the  progress  made  in  railroad  con- 
struction up  to  about  1860  are  in  order  at  this  point. 

Very  shortly^  after  the  legislature  made  its  first  grant 
to  railroads  in  1851  the  work  of  constructing  the  Pacific 


The  Railroads  of  Missouri  85 

was  begun.  This  road  was  plann,ed  to  begin  at  St.  Louis 
and  to  extend  to  the  western  boundary  of  the  state.  The 
work  of  construction  was  inaugurated  on  July  4,  1851  when 
Mayor  Keflnett  of  St.  Louis  threw  the  first  shovelful  of  dirt. 
But  progress  was  very  slow  for  sometime,  only  five  miles 
having  been  built  by  the  close  of  1852.  However,  the  first 
locomotive  used  west  of  the  Mississippi  was  placed  upon  its 
tracks  about  that  time,  and  regular  traffic  on  the  few  miles 
that  had  been  built  was  begun. 

Meanwhile  nothing  had  been  done  towards  construct- 
ing the  Hannibal  &  St.  Joseph  which,  as  we  have  seen,  had 
also  been  given  aid  by  the  legislature  in  1851  along  with  the 
Pacific. 

If  the  legislature  had  seen  fit,  it  could  have  granted  aid 
to  other  railroad  companies  in  1851,  as  there  were  a  great 
many  applicants  for  such  favors.  Although  it  declined  to 
make  numerous  or  extensive  grants  at  first,  the  way  was 
opened  up  for  those  roads  that  had  received  grants  to  ask  for 
more  help  and  for  others  to  submit  their  claims  for  considera- 
tion. When  therefore  the  legislature  met  in  1852  it  was 
besougnt  to  extend  further  aid  to  railroads,  and  in  December 
of  that  year  it  authorized  the  issuing  of  railroad  bonds  to 
the  amount  of  $4,750,000  for  the  benefit  of  the  North  Mis- 
souri, the  St.  Louis  &  Iron  Mountain,  the  Pacific  and  the 
Southwest  Branch  of  the  Pacific.^ 

Meanwhile  Congress  had  given  substantial  encourage- 
ment to  railroads  in  Missouri  in  the  form  of  a  land  grant  to 
the  state  which  was  to  be  used  in  aiding  the  construc- 
tion of  the  Hannibal  &  St.  Joseph  and  the  Pacific 
roads.  Similar  grants  for  other  roads  were  made  at  later 
times. 

Notwithstanding   this    liberal  patronage   of   the   state 

1.  The  grants  of  1851  and  18.52  amounted  to  $8,2o0,()()0  as  follows: 
Pacific,  $:i,000,()00;  Southwest  Branch,  $1,()00,()()();  Hannibal  &  St. 
Joseph,  .$1,500,000;  North  Missouri,  .12,000,000;  St.  Louis  &  Iron 
Mountain,   .17.50,000. 


86  Chapters  in  Missouri  History 

and  the  national  governments,  progress  in  actual  con- 
struction was  very  slow.  It  very  soon  developed  that  more 
money  was  needed  to  complete  them  than  had  l)een  anti- 
cipated at  the  outset.  For  one  thing  it  appeared  that  the 
actual  cost  of  construction  was  from  thirty  to  one  hundred 
per  cent  greater  than  had  been  expected.  Moreover  the 
bonds  that  had  been  issued  by  the  state  to  the  railroads  had 
been  sold  at  a  great  discount,  owing  to  the  scarcity  of  money. 
Under  these  circumstances  the  railroads  asked  the  legisla- 
ture in  1855  for  further  assistance. 

As  was  natural  people  began  to  ask  why  greater  progress 
had  not  been  made  and  why  the  legislature  should  be  asked 
to  give  more  help.  There  was  much  talk  of  waste  and 
jobbery,  and  the  legislature  provided  for  an  investigating 
commission  which  should  go  into  matters  and  see  just  what 
the  trouble  was. 

The  commission  found  that  of  the  $8,250,000  which  had 
already  been  granted  to  the  railroads  in  bonds  of  the  state, 
only  $4,580,000  had  up  to  that  time  been  actually  issued  to 
them,  and  that  that  less  than  one  hundred  miles  of  railway 
were  in  operation.  It  also  found  the  different  roads  in 
varying  stages  of  construction.  The  Pacific,  which  was  the 
only  road  that  had  taken  up  the  entire  amount  of  the 
bond  that  had  been  granted  to  it,  was  also  the  only  one  "that 
had  made  anything  like  real  progress,  having  been  con- 
structed as  far  as  Jefferson  City.  The  North  Missouri 
however,  had  been  built  only  a  little  ways  beyond  St.  Charles, 
•  and  the  Hannibal  &  St.  Joseph  and  the  St.  Louis  &  Iron 
Mountain  had  considerable  portions  under  construction 
but  no  part  completed.  The  commission  also  found  that 
the  actual  cost  had  been  greater  than  had  at  first  been  antici- 
pated, but  it  exonerated  the  companies  of  any  graft  in  the 
matter  of  salaries,  engineering  expenses,  or  letting  of  con- 
tracts for  work  or  materials.  It  concluded  its  report  by 
expressing  the  hope  that  the  legislature  would  see  its  way 


The  Railroads  of  Missouri  87 

clear  to  extend  such  further  aid  as  would  enable  these  com- 
panies to  complete  the  construction  of  their  roads. 

Acting  under  the  findings  and  recommendations  of 
this  investigating  commission,  the  legislature  granted  $11,- 
000,000  in  state  bonds  to  the  various  railroad  companies 
whereby  they  might  complete  what  they  had  begun. ^ 

At  the  same  time  these  new  grants  were  made,  the 
legislature  provided  for  a  General  Board  of  Pul)li('  Works 
through  whom  the  state  would  be  able  to  keep  in  touch  with 
the  workings  of  the  railroads  all  the  time  and  look  after  its 
interests  in  them. 

Now  that  the  railroads  had  secured  additional  help 
from  the  state,  the  work  of  construction  was  taken  up  again 
and  pushed  as  rapidly  as  possible.  In  fact  it  is  quite  evident 
that  some  of  the  work  was  done  in  a  very  hasty  and  imperfect 
manner.  The  Gasconade  river  bridge  disaster  of  November 
1,  1855,  on  the  Pacific  is  evidence  of  this  haste  in  construct- 
tion.  On  that  day  an  excursion  train  of  ten  passenger  cars 
was  started  from  St.  Louis  to  Jefferson  City.  The  road 
had  just  been  completed  to  the  latter  point  and  the  excur- 
sion was  planned  in  honor  of  that  event.  At  about  noon 
the  train  reached  the  Gasconade  river.  The  stone  piers 
and  abutments  of  the  bridge  over  this  river  had  been  com- 
pleted but  the  superstructure  was  as  yet  unfinished.  A 
temporary  superstructure  was  constructed  in  order  that 
this  train  might  cross  over.  It  was  not  strong  enough, 
however,  to  bear  the  weight  of  the  heavily  loaded  train, 
and  most  of  the  cars  were  dropped  into  the  river.  Many 
men  killed  outright,  among  whom  were  some  very  promi- 
nent citizens,  and  many  others  were  seriously  injured. 

In  spite  of  the  fact  however  that  extensive  grants  had 

been  made  to  these  roads,  it  was  very  plain  that  all  of  them 

1.  This  grant  was  distributed  as  follows:  Pacifif  and  Southwest 
Branch,  $5,000,000;  Hannibal  &  St.  Joseph,  $1,500,000;  North  Mis- 
souri, .|2,00(),()0();  St.  Louis  &  Iron  Mountain,  $2,250,000;  Cairo  & 
Fulton,  $250,000. 


88  Chapters  in  Missouri  History 

except  the  Hannibal  &  St.  Joseph  were  by  the  close  of  1856 
very  greatly  in  need  of  more  money.  Once  more  they 
appealed  to  the  state  legislature  for  help,  and  in  1857  a 
grant  was  made,  this  time  for  $5,700,000.^ 

This  proved  to  be  the  last  grant  made  to  the  railroads 
by  the  state.  An  effort  was  made  in  1860  to  get  another 
one  but  it  failed.  Thereafter  no  further  attempt  was  ever 
made. 

As  has  already  been  said  the  state  of  Missouri  had  by 
1860  authorized  bonds  to  the  amount  of  $24-,950,000  in 
favor  of  six  different  railroads,  or  of  seven  if  the  Southwest 
Branch  of  the  Pacific  is  counted  as  a  separate  road.  Thanks 
to  this  generosity  on  the  part  of  the  state,  which  seems  to 
have  been  inspired  by  a  spirit  of  speculation  almost  reckless 
in  character,.  715  miles  of  railroad  track  had  been  laid  by 
1860.  The  Hannibal  &  St.  Joseph  had  been  completed 
early  in  1859,  and  during  the  same  year  the  North  Missouri 
reached  Macon  where  it  touched  the  Hannibal  &  St. 
Joseph,  and  the  St.  Louis  &  Iron  Mountain  was  built  to 
Pilot  Knob.  Meanwhile  the  Pacific  was  completed  to  Syra- 
cuse, 168  miles  west  from  St.  Louis;  but  of  the  other  three 
roads,  the  Southwest  Branch  of  the  Pacific,  the  Cairo  & 
Fulton,  and  the  Platte  County,  no  portion  of  any  of  them 
had  been  completed. 

1.  This  amount  was  distributed  as  follows:  Pacific,  $1,000,000; 
Northwest  Branch,  $1,500,000;  North  Missouri,  $1,500,000;  St.  Louis 
&  Iron  Mountain,  $000,00;  Platto  County,  $700,000;  Cairo  &  Fulton, 
$400,000.  It  should  be  noted  that  the  Platto  County  Road  gotit 
first  grant  at  this  time. 


The  Railroads  of  Missouri  89 

Section  II. 

As  might  be  expected  the  period  of  the  civil  war  was 
one  of  setbacks  and  financial  difficulties  for  the  rail- 
roads of  Missouri.  Much  of  the  disaster  that  overtook 
them  was  due  to  the  war,  but  even  if  the  war  had  not  broken 
out  it  is  quite  evident  from  the  developments  of  the  years 
1859  and  1860  that  the  railroads  were  facing  bankruptcy. 
On  January  1,  1859  the  North  Missouri  and  the  St.  Louis 
&  Iron  Mountain  failed  to  pay  the  interest  due  on  the  bonds 
that  the  state  had  issued  in  their  favor.  During  1860  the 
Pacific,  the  Southwest  Branch,  the  Cairo  and  Fulton,  and 
the  Platte  County  likewise  defaulted.  Only  one  road,  the 
Hannibal  &  St.  Joseph,  continued  to  meet  regularly  the 
interest  charges  during  the  civil  war  period.  At  no  time, 
however,  did  the  other  roads  ever  resume  payment  of  interest 
on  their  state  railroad  bonds. 

The  causes  for  the  default  of  these  railroads  were  the 
lack  of  traffic,  the  unproductive  character  of  the  land  grants 
that  were  given  them,  the  excessive  cost  of  construction, 
and  the  loose  management  of  finances.  In  fact  the  looseness 
with  which  the  finances  of  the  roads  were  conducted  almost 
warrants  the  charge  that  fraud  and  corruption  were  practiced 
by  those  in  authority. 

This  defaulting  of  the  railroads  in  the  pajrment  of 
interest  on  their  bonds  put  a  very  heavy  financial  burden 
upon  the  state  inasmuch  as  the  state  was  compelled  to  pay 
the  interest  herself  in  order  to  keep  up  her  credit.  This 
burden  was  thrown  upon  her  at  a  time  when  she  needed 
to  save  all  her  strength  for  a  still  greater  burden  that  the 
war  was  destined  to  bring. 

In  spite  of  the  fact  that  all  of  the  railroads  but  one 
were  defaulting  in  the  payment  of  interest,  the  delinquents 
were  actually  asking  for  more  help  from  the  state.  Not 
one  of  them  was  completed,  and  inasmuch  as  the  Hannibal 


90  Chapters  in  Missouri  History 

&  St.  Joseph  had  been  finished  in  1859,  it  was  urged  that 
if  they  could  only  find  the  means  wherebj^  they  could  be 
completed,  they  too  would  be  able  to  pay  their  interest 
charges.  It  was  out  of  the  question,  however,  for  the 
state  to  extend  any  more  aid,  but  the  legislature  enacted 
certain  measures  which  authorized  two  of  the  roads, 
the  Pacific  and  the  North  Missouri,  to  borrow  money 
whenever  they  could  find  it,  and  give  their  creditors  mortgages 
of  such  a  character  as  to  make  them,  instead  of  the  state  of 
Missouri,  naturally  the  first  creditors. 

From  the  money  that  was  thus  realized  from  such 
loans  and  from  bonds  issued  by  St.  Louis  county,  the  Pacific 
was  enabled  to  resume  the  work  of  construction  in  1865, 
and  by  the  end  of  that  year  the  road  was  completed  to  Kansas 
City.  The  first  passenger  train  from  Kansas  City  to  St. 
Louis  made  the  trip  on  September  20,  1865. 

The  North  Missouri  was  not  as  fortunate  as  the  Pacific 
in  borrowing  money  but  it  got  enough  during  1865  to  begin 
the  construction  of  a  branch  from  Moberly  to  St.  Joseph 
and  to  begin  a  bridge  across  the  Missouri  at  St.  Charles. 
However  neither  the  bridge  nor  any  part  of  the  branch 
road  was  completed  by  the  end  of  that  year. 

The  only  other  roads  aside  from  the  Pacific  that  actually 
added  to  their  mileage  during  the  war  were  the  Cairo  & 
Fulton  and  the  Platte  Country,  formerly  called  the  Platte 
County.  But  the  sum  total  of  mileage  constructed  during 
the  war  period  was  small,  amounting  to  only  113  miles, 
94  of  which  were  on  the  Pacific.  If  we  take  into  consideration 
the  financial  straits  into  which  the  roads  had  fallen,  the 
actual  destruction  of  many  parts  of  the  roads  by  hostile 
armies,  especially  the  Pacific  and  the  North  Missouri,  and 
the  generally  unfavorable  situation,  we  are  rather  amazed 
that  anything  was  done  towards  extending  the  roads  at  all 
during  this  period. 


The  Railroads  of  Missouri  91 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  all  of  the  railroads  but  the 
Hannibal  &  St.  Joseph  had  discontinued  paying  interest 
on  their  state  bonds,  and  that  there  was  no  prospect  of  them 
ever  resuming,  notwithstanding  the  revival  of  business 
after  the  close  of  the  war,  the  legislature  decided  to  foreclose 
their  mortgages  on  the  roads  and  apply  the  proceeds  upon 
the  indebtedness  of  the  state.  Laws  were  therefore  passed 
during  1866  and  1868  providing  for  the  sale  of  the  default- 
ing roads.  By  March,  1868  all  of  them  were  sold  and  the 
state's  lien  on  them  released. 

The  total  amount  of  the  railroad  indebtedness  of  the 
state  on  January  1,  1868  in  bonds  and  interest  was  $31,735,- 
840.  Of  this  amount  $23,701,000  represented  the  principal 
of  the  bonds ;^  the  remainder,  $8,034,840,  represented  the 
interest. 

The  amount  received  from  the  sale  of  delinquent  roads 
was  only  $6,131,496.  When  this  amount  was  applied  to  the 
state's  indebtedness,  it  was  brought  down  to  $25,604,344. 

-Perhaps  no  chapter  in  the  financial  history  of  the  state 
is  as  shameless  as  this  one  on  the  sale  of  the  railroads.  Charges 
of  bribery  and  corruption  were  made  on  all  sides,  and  if  no 
other  evidence  was  available,  the  way  in  which  the  legis- 
lature pretended  to  carry  on  an  investigation  regarding 
these  charges  would  be  sufficiently  conclusive  that  they 
were  well  founded.  On  March  23,  1868,  just  a  few  days 
after  the  sale  of  the  St.  Louis  &  Iron  Mountain,  the  Cairo  & 
Fulton,  the  North  Missouri,  the  Southwest  Branch,  and  the 
Platte  Country  roads,  and  just  a  few  days  before  the  sale  of 
the  Pacific,  the  'legislature  appointed  a  joint  committee  of 
the   two   houses   to   investigate   the   charges  of  corruption 

1.  The  .state  hafl  authorized  the  issuance  of  bonds  to  the  amount 
of  $24,950,000,  as  was  l)roufi;lit  out  in  an  (^arlicr  portion  of  this  chajjter, 
but  the  North  Missouri  forfeit(>d  .1;  1,100,000  and  tlie  St.  Louis  &  Iron 
Mountain  $99,000  because  of  their  defaulting  in  the  {jayrnent  of  interest. 
In  this  way  the  princij)al  of  the  state's  indebtedness  had  been  kept  down 
to  $23,701,000. 


92  Chapters  in  Missouri  History 

and  bribery.  While  some  of  the  members  of  this  committee 
had  not  voted  for  the  releasing  of  the  state's  lien  on  the  roads 
after  they  had  been  sold,  yet  the  leaders  of  the  committee 
were  men  who  had  been  very  energetic  in  securing  that 
action  and  who  had  been  all  but  open  agents  of  the  companies 
that  bought  up  the  roads.  Moreover  the  committee  was 
given  only  one  day  to  gather  its  information  and  make  its 
report.  Its  report,  as  one  might  well  imagine,  was  most 
farcical. 

However  when  the  sales  were  made,  conditions  were 
imposed  upon  the  purchasing  companies  which  in  themselves 
were  very  desirable.  All  of  the  roads  that  were  sold  were 
unfinished,  and  the  state  released  her  lien  upon  them  on  the 
condition  that  they  should  be  completed  in  a  given  time. 
The  purchasing  companies  met  these  conditions,  thus  add- 
ing 626  miles  of  railroads  to  what  had  already  been  built  in 
the  state  which  brought  the  sum  total  of  mileage  up  to 
1540  miles. 

For  years  the  state  struggled  with  this  heavy  railroad 
indebtedness  to  which  had  been  added  the  civil  war  debt,' 
but  it  finally  cleared  itself  of  all  this  burden  by  1903. 

But  the  experience  of  the  state  had  been  a  bitter  one, 
and  when  the  constitution  was  revised  in  1875,  it  contained 
a  clause  which  prohibited  the  use  of  the  credit  of  the  state 
to  assist  any  private  or  corporate  enterprise  whatsoever. 
Through  this  provision  the  state  has  saved  itself  from  any 
repetition  of  the  experiences  of  the  fifties  and  sixties. 

Notwithstanding  all  these  bitter  experiences  of  the 
state,  there  is  another  chapter  in  the  history  of  railroads 
in  Missouri  that  is  equally  as  disgraceful  as  the  one  we 
have  just  finished.  With  the  restoration  of  peace  on  the 
close  of  the  civil  war,  there  came  a  great  expansion  of 
trade.  It  was  apparent  under  these  conditions  that  there 
were  not  enough  railroads  in  the  state.     Large  sections  of 


The  Railroads  of  Missouri  93 

Missouri  were  without  any  at  all,  and  the  people  wanted 
them  very  much.  Many  plans  were  proposed  for  supply- 
ing them,  most  of  which  included  county  and  municipal  aid. 
Companies  were  formed  and  railroads  projected,  and  coun- 
ties and  cities  were  asked  to  issue  bonds  to  assist  in  the 
building  of  these  new  roads.  Many  of  them  voted  bonds 
during  the  sixties  and  seventies  and  issued  them  to  the  comp- 
anies that  had  been  organized.  In  some  cases  the  roads 
were  built  according  to  the  original  contract,  but  in  many 
instances  they  were  not  built  at  all,  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  the  bonds  had  been  issued  to  the  companies  and 
had  been  sold  by  them.  The  defrauded  counties  tried  to 
resist  the  payment  of  their  bonds  but  the  courts  decided 
against  them  and  gave  j  udgment  for  the  bond  holders.  There 
are  yet  several  counties  that  are  struggling  with  their  old 
debts  for  railroads  that  were  either  never  started  or  never 
completed,  and  in  many  of  them  there  may  yet  be  found 
the  old  road  beds  of  some  of  the  unfinished  roads. 

In  spite  of  all  these  drawbacks  and  disgraceful  features, 
the  railroads  have  been  an  indispensable  means  of  developing 
the  resources  of  the  state,  and  a  network  of  them  has  been 
built  over  the  state  which  in  1911  amounted  to  8,108  miles. ^ 
At  present  (1914)  every  one  of  the  114  counties  has  at  least 
one  railroad  of  some  sort  passing  through  it. 

It  should  be  noted  here  that  the  first  railroads  built 
in  Missouri  were  intra-state  roads.  Up  to  at  least  the  close 
of  the  civil  war  there  was  no  intention  of  extending  a  road 
begun  within  the  state  beyond  its  borders  or  of  making  any 
of  them  parts  of  great  inter-state  systems.  The  roads  of 
Missouri  were  to  run  from  one  point  to  another  within  the 
state.  The  Hannibal  &  St.  Joseph  and  the  Pacific  w(Te, 
for  example,  to  cross  the  state  from  the  eastern  border  to 
the  western,  the  former  from  Hannibal  to  St.  Joseph  and  the 
1.  In  the   United  States  there  were  244,179  miles  in   that  year. 


94  Chapters  in  Missouri  History 

latter  from  St.  Louis  to  Kansas  City;  and  the  North  Missouri, 
the  St.  Louis  &  Iron  Mountain,  and  the  Southwest  Branch 
were  to  radiate  from  St.  Louis  in  different  tlirections  to  the 
different  borders  of  the  state. 

But  though  none  of  the  Missouri  roads  were  to  cross 
the  border  lines  of  the  state,  it  was  expected  that  other  lines 
would  be  built  in  the  neighboring  states  to  the  terminations 
of  the  Missouri  roads  and  thus  give  the  state  connections 
with  the  outside  world.  The  first  of  these  connections  to 
be  secured  was  with  the  east.  By  1860  railroads  had  been 
built  to  St.  Louis  which  joined  her  to  Cincinnati,  Cleve- 
land, and  Pittsburg,  and  by  1863  St.  Louis  was  able  to 
reach  the  Atlantic  coast  by  way  of  the  railroads  that  were 
completed  in  that  year  between  her  and  C'hicago,  the  lat- 
ter place  having  enjoyed  railroad  connections  with  the 
Atlantic  coast  since  1853. 

By  1870  Missouri  had  increased  her  railroad  connections 
with  the  outside  world  considerably  further.  From  St. 
Louis,  lines  had  been  built  that  gave  her  access  to  such  points 
in  the  south  as  New  Orleans,  Mobile,  Nashville,  Atlanta, 
and  Charleston,  but  as  yet  she  was  without  connections 
with  Arkansas,  that  part  of  Louisiana  west  of  the  Mississippi, 
and  Texas.  Other  lines  had  also  been  built  giving  her  access 
to  such  points  to  the  north  as  Des  Moines,  St.  Paul,  and 
Omaha. 

Kansas  City  was  by  this  time  coming  to  be  a  railroad 
center  in  both  state  and  interstate  traffic.  Many  of  the 
new  roads  in  Kansas  were  built  to  Kansas  City,  and  con- 
nections were  established  with  the  newly  built  road  to  the 
Pacific  coast. 

By  1880  railroad  connections  were  made  between  Mis- 
souri and  the  great  southwest  and  northwest  portions  of 
our  country.  By  means  of  the  Missouri,  Kansas  and  Texas 
and  other  roads  built  through  to  Texas,  a  large  scope  of 
territory  was  made  commercially  tributary  to  St.  Louis  and 


The  Railroads  of  Missouri  95 

other  trade  centers  in  the  state.  Since  1880  the  railroad 
connections  with  the  southwest  and  northwest  have  been 
increased  and  new  sections  of  these  regions  have  been  open- 
ed up  to  Missouri  trade. 

While  this  expansion  was  going  on  among  the  railroads 
in  and  out  of  the  state,  a  process  of  consolidation  was  also 
taking  place.  In  fact  this  consolidation  was  one  of  the  things 
that  made  this  remarkable  expansion  possible.  By  1898 
twelve  companies  owned  85%  of  the  railroads  of  Missouri, 
and  practically  all  of  these  twelve  companies  were  parts  of 
interstate  systems. 

References: — There  is  only  one  authority  on  Raihoads  in  Mis- 
souri and  that  is  Million,  State  Aid  to  Railways  in  Missouri.  Much 
of  this  chapter  has  been  taken  from  it.  The  Encyclopedia  of  Mis- 
souri History  contains  some  articles  on  Railroads  that  are  fairly  good. 


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